No. 92

In my Separate Despatch of the 31st ultimo, I reported the
existence of a serious disturbance

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in the Cariboo District and that
it was my intention to proceed at once to the spot.

2. I accordingly went to Cariboo with the utmost expedition.
I found that a dispute arising out of a boundary question between
two mining companies had assumed very serious dimensions. The
Gold Commissioner's Writ of Injunction had been disregarded by
the intruding Company. When the Police attempted to enforce it
they were driven off the ground, and finally when the Magistrate
and Deputy Sheriff of the District with the Posse Comitatus,
consisting in this case of about thirty men, appeared with the
intention of recovering the ground in dispute they were opposed
by the Miners and the Magistrate in disgust left his post and
repaired to the nearest Telegraph Station in order to place himself
in communication with me. He urgently requested that a force of
Marines from the Ships now lying idle in Esquimalt might be sent
to his assistance.

3. It will be seen from a correspondence which I enclose in
another despatch of this date (See 93/9639)

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that I have no hope of assistance
from Her Majesty's ships in the event of the peace of the Colony
being disturbed, or, I believe, if a foreign flag should supersede
our national one at the Gold Mines. I therefore with the advice
of the Executive Council and at very considerable inconvenience to
myself proceeded as stated to Cariboo.

4. I found less excitement there than I anticipated, but the
Law utterly powerless. The Company which the Gold Commissioner
and power of the District had endeavored to expel were in full
possession of the disputed ground and were taking out from it about
one hundred and fifty ounces of gold a day. They appeared to have
placed themselves in systematic opposition to the Law and had given
out a large portion of the "Claim" to the greatest ruffians of the
Cariboo, who held under the condition of fighting for the Company
(the "Canadian") who kept possession.

5. Although matters appeared to be extremely unpromising
and that according to common opinion insults and abuse would be
the only results of my interference, I placed myself in
communication with both parties in the dispute. It will suffice
in the present state of the affair if I simply report that I
succeeded in inducing the Canadian Company to hand over the
claim in dispute to me and to deliver over to justice all the
ringleaders of the opposition to the Police. They further
consented to give up the Gold which had been taken out of the
claim and to submit to any arbitration as to title that I might
choose to impose.

6. I regret that the absence of a corresponding feeling of
compliance on the part of the opposite party did not allow of my
settling the matter finally before leaving William's Creek. I departed
however, having obtained possession of the Claim in dispute and leaving
eight of the principal members of the Canadian Company in gaol for
contempt of the Magistrate's Writ and resistance to the Police.

7. But I cannot reckon on a Gold Mine of great value being
protected from intrusion by one Constable, and I propose this
morning to take the opinion of the Executive Council in the matter.

8. Having only returned late last night from a journey of
a thousand miles and the mail for England being about to close,
Your Grace will excuse my being less explicit than I could wish
on the present occasion.

9. I sincerely trust that the dispute will end without
bloodshed but the policemen are now powerless against a Company
like the Canadian which includes, I am told with the fighting
claimants, eighty well armed men, and the adverse party is buying
up all the "repeating" rifles that can be obtained.

10. Arbitration having been declined, I fear that nothing
short of an Act of the Legislature can compel a decision in the case,

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should one of the parties continue to hold out.

11. The trouble has been brewing for some time and has its
origin in certain disputes in Cariboo which took place last year
during my absence from the Colony and to which, having been
managed by the Officer lately Administering the Government
I devoted little attention.