No. 72, Separate

I have the honor to transmit the copy of a correspondence which has
passed between Governor Seymour, the Colonial Secretary of Vancouver
Island and myself on the subject of a claim made by this Government
for a reimbursement for conveying the Mails of British Columbia from
San Francisco to New Westminster accompanied by the copy of a
Memorandum of Agreement between the Attorney General of Vancouver
Island acting on behalf of the Government of British Columbia and
Vancouver Island and Benjamin Holladay the Mail Contractor.

I waited the return of Mr Young, the Colonial Secretary, from leave
of absence before making this claim to enable me more clearly to
state the facts of the case, and to this cause my apparent delay in
doing so is attributable.

I fear that no satisfactory result can accrue from a continuance of
the correspondence between Governor Seymour and myself, and it seems
a subject on which your decision becomes necessary to prevent local
discussions and possible ill feeling which I am sure Governor Seymour
would deprecate as much as I do.

I think it is unnecessary that I should trouble you with any further
remarks beyond directing your attention to the Despatch of my
Predecessor No 4 dated 6th February 1862 and the Duke of
Newcastle's reply thereto.