No. 9

I have had the honor to receive your despatch No. 231 of the 10th
of November acknowledging some despatches from my Predecessor on the
disposal of land in British Columbia. No practical question is raised
by this communication and it is unnecessary for me to enter further into
the particular question to which it relates.

But I may take the present opportunity of cautioning you (although
the caution is perhaps unnecessary) that in transmitting to you, in my
recent despatch No. 3 of the 7th of January, Captain Clarke's scheme
for the disposal of lands, you are not to suppose me to have done so as a
preliminary towards carrying such a scheme

into execution by the
instrumentality of an Order of Her Majesty in Council. I think that the
subject is not one fit to be dealt with by that authority, and that any
attempt to frame in this Country regulations entering so much into
detail would be misplaced.

My object was merely to put you in possession of the views of a
gentleman of great ability, who formerly occupied a high position in
Australia and enjoyed the confidence of the Colonists, upon the best
means of meeting difficulties such as he had himself encountered in
administering the affairs of a rapidly growing Colony, in order that you
might have the benefit of his experience; you will be able to judge for
yourself how far the principles embodied in

his scheme would be of any
assistance to you in British Columbia, subject of course, in case you
approve those principles, to all modifications of detail which the
difference of local circumstances might require.