No. 64

I have duly received the several Despatches from you enumerated in
the margin.

*

In these Despatches you report the steps which you took to encourage
exploration, and the subsequent discoveries of Gold in the Sooke River
District.

You acted very properly in promoting an endeavor to enlarge the
Knowledge of the resources of the Colony, and it is very satisfactory
that this endeavor has been rewarded by a discovery which promises to
increase the wealth and prosperity of the Colony.

I enclose, for your information, two Parliamentary Papers on
Australia, containing some documents which may be of use to you in
dealing with this important subject. And if you should require further
information, I think that you might derive advantage from communicating
on the subject with the Governor of British Columbia, in which Colony a
considerable amount of experience on the best treatment of Gold Fields
has already been accumulated. Indeed unless there would be a marked
difference in the conditions of the case in the two Colonies, it would
seem convenient that their regulations on the present subject should be
as nearly similar as circumstances will admit.