No. 39, Judicial

Several murders having been committed in British Columbia, by white
men engaged in mining pursuits, and it having been found expensive,
not only to bring them to trial, which has nevertheless been in every
case accomplished, but also impossible to carry out the sentence of
the law in cases where criminals are sentenced to transportation for
life, for the reason that there is no penal settlement within reach,
and that I have no means of forming a settlement for that purpose on
this coast.

I am therefore much perplexed about the disposal of convicts of
that class, and wish to learn if Her Majesty's Government will permit
their removal to any penal settlement in Australia, and how the
expense of their removal is to be
defrayed.