Hamilton to Rogers (Permanent Under-Secretary)

With reference to your letter of the 2nd Instant I am
desired by the Lords Commissoners of Her Majesty's Treasury
to state, for the information of the Duke of Newcastle, that
before coming to any decision in regard to the remission of
any portion of the Passage Money to British Columbia of the
Wife & Family of Serjeant McColl—of the Royal Engineers—They
wish to be furnished with further information on the subject
of the payment of the cost of the passages of the wives &
families of the Men who went to British Columbia. It appears
that some of the married Men & their families were conveyed
free in the Troop Ship "Thames City," and My Lords assume that
the cost of their Transport was paid by the Admiralty as a
Naval Charge. It further appears that ill health prevented
Mrs McColl & her family availing herself of that opportunity
of proceeding to the Colony, & that the question of providing
them with a passage at the public expense was referred to the
Secretary of State for War, on which subject no opinion is
expressed in these papers;

By your letter of 1 October 1860 My Lords were requested
 to give directions for the payment of the cost of the passage
of the wives & families of certain non-commissioned Officers
& Men as an advance to be repaid by the Colony,

*

and in November
1861 My Lords issued the sum of £217.11.2 to the Emigration
Commissioners on account of their passages per "Marcella."
It is now stated that the cost of these and other passages
was to be defrayed in the first instance by the Imperial Treasury,
but to be recovered by stoppages from the Men's pay;

My Lords presume, from this circumstance, that the War
Department did not accede to the grant of a free passage to
Mrs McColl, but that it was to be recovered in common
with the cost of the passages of the other wives & families
sent in the "Marcella;"

My Lords request to be informed whether the sums
advanced have been fully recovered from the Men whose families
were sent in this Vessel, & to what account they have been
credited, which information might be obtained from Colonel
Moody. They also desire to be favored with the opinion of
the Secretary of State for War whether any remission of the
Passage Money of the Wife & family of Serjeant McColl would
be allowed under Military Regulations on the grounds set
forth by that person.