No. 50

I would beg leave to refer Your Lordship to my despatch
No. 20 of 11th January. I therein acknowledged the receipt
from Your Lordship of a letter from Sir James Douglas commenting
unfavorably upon the British Columbia Customs Ordinance 1865.
I expressed my opinion that though I believed the writer would
wish the matter to drop, still it was better that my report
should be placed on record.

2. I sent a note, copy of which is enclosed, to Sir James
Douglas. I forward his reply. As I anticipated he does not wish
to proceed in the matter. Our relations have always been of a very
friendly nature and I have not informed him that I am in
possession of a Copy of his letter. Your Lordship will observe a
statement hardly to be expected in a letter from Sir James
Douglas, he says—

You know as well as I can point out that this is not one of
Nature's favored Countries. It has few natural attractions and
will not thrive otherwise than by nursing and careful management.

On whose reports other than Sir James Douglas's did the Duke of
Newcastle inform me that he appointed me to the Governorship
of British Columbia without waiting for my acceptance, as he
could not give any man a more interesting duty than that of
developing the "marvellous resources of the Colony?"

3. I will not deny the statement contained in the second
paragraph of the late Governor's letter, that the Colony is now
labouring under considerable depression. Anyone who sets his
foot in Victoria will see that the town is going through a period
of considerable adversity, but on reaching New Westminster he will
be much less struck by signs of decadence. The Police Magistrate
informs me in a letter which I enclose
that there is but one dwelling house untenanted
in the town, and in further support of my assertion I add a portion
of an address presented to me by the Municipality of New Westminster
on my return from England—

While we cannot point to any very great progress made by this
City during Your absence, it is a satisfaction to know
that some substantial advancement has marked that period, and that
the commercial crisis which has overtaken these Colonies has
fallen with less severity upon this Community.

4. Proceeding Northward we find that in Yale there is not a
house to let and at Cariboo, still our principal Gold field, a
larger population is wintering than has ever yet passed the shorter
days of the year in its severe climate. Undoubtedly a good many
road side houses on the main line of road have been closed, many for
the not unsatisfactory cause that the improvement in the roads has
so facilitated travelling, that places of halt are less frequently
required than formerly. The little town of Quesnelmouth has been
almost abandoned in consequence of the road having been completed
into the heart of Cariboo East and many habitations have been
abandoned on the Douglas-Lillooet route, as public favour has almost
unquestionably given the preference to the rival line by Yale and
Lytton. Here may I mention incidentally that I am not the person to
blame for the construction of competing roads, at a cost upwards of
a hundred thousand pounds to the young Colony, leading to a single
gold mine. The mere keeping in repair of which is one of the
heaviest charges on the revenue.

5. I admit that depression of a very serious degree now
presses upon the Colony. But I see that comparatively an equal
amount of gloom hangs over the neighbouring territory of Washington
and State of Oregon. The conclusion of the American war has
caused a change in the current of emigration; it sets now from
the Pacific to the Atlantic Coast.

6. To turn towards the reasons assigned by Sir James Douglas
for the present despondency. He attributes the depression to arise,
first; from the temporary imposition of a tax on the export of Gold.
On this point I have only to say that the tax was recommended to
the Legislative Council after consultation with the Mining Board of
Cariboo, elected by the Miners themselves, and that it passed
through the Council without one adverse vote. The principal
opposition to its operation arose in Victoria, where public
agitation has been matured into a science, and, had the mining
population been left to itself it is probable that either the tax
would have been endured without remonstrance or met with such
temperate opposition as would have led to its repeal without
attracting the notice of the whole Pacific Coast to our local
jealousies—a notice which unquestionably inflicted temporary
injury. But as to the Gold Export Tax having "driven hundreds of
Miners in disgust from the Country," I must entirely dissent from
the Statement of Sir James Douglas.

7. The tax on Gold has however been repealed and it forms
but the introduction to the grievance of the Customs Ordinance of
1865. The portion of the ordinance to which Your Lordship objected
is about to be repealed

*

and therefore I would refer principally to
the reports from all the Acting Magistrates of the mainland upon the
manner in which the Ordinance has worked. Mr Brew, of New
Westminster considers that the Act was, "as it intended to be a
positive benefit to this Colony." Mr O'Reilly, of the
Columbia
district says that, "the Ordinance referred to has not affected the
traders of the Columbia district." Mr Ball of Cariboo West
cannot see "that the Customs Ordinance of 1865 in any manner
brought about this reverse." Mr Sanders of Yale and Lytton reports,

I am happy to be able to state that the description in
question (that by Sir James Douglas) has in no way a general
application to the District in my charge for not one house is
uninhabited and not more than two shops closed—that commercial
matters for some time past have been extremely depressed, business
exceedingly dull—in fact almost stagnant—cannot be denied, but
to ascribe the consequent embarrassments to the effects of the
Customs Ordinance is most absurd.

Mr Cox from Cariboo East reports, "I beg to state that the
Ordinance referred to in no way contributed to the wretched condition
of the Country." Mr Elliot of Lillooet says,
"Whatever effect the Customs Ordinance may have had in other parts
of the Colony, I am fully persuaded that in the Districts of Douglas
and Lillooet it has not produced the evil."

8. I referred additionally to the Collector of Customs.
He writes,

that there is a change and a depression in the circumstances
of the Victoria speculators it would be idle to pretend to deny—it
is just as preposterous for them to pretend that their losses
are attributable to the Customs Law here

and later in his letter,

The people of New Westminster are not losing ground. There is
no sort of political excitement among them. No people can be more
contented and satisfied with their Government and notwithstanding
the crisis through which we are all passing there is nothing to
discourage prudent men from looking forward hopefully to the future.

9. I wish to leave the magistrates principally to speak
respecting the operation of the Customs Act on the mainland,
but I must make a remark upon the eleventh paragraph of Sir James
Douglas's letter. He writes,

the first measure of relief which I would suggest to Your
Lordship and it will be hailed with joy by both Colonies is the
immediate disallowance of the British Columbia Customs Amendment
Ordinance 1865.

It so happens that at this very time a Bill is before the
Council repealing the clause to which Sir James Douglas so
particularly objects. Every Member from Vancouver Island (now
united with British Columbia) opposes the reversal of the general
principal of the Measure. Had I not in deference to Your
Lordship's commands made a Government question of the withdrawal
of the provision, which, in the opinion of the Lords of the
Treasury imposed differential duties, I should be outvoted by a
large majority.

10. Sir James Douglas further writes,

There is no cause for rivalry; no act can ever make New Westminster
what Victoria now is, a resort for ocean ships. Were Victoria
destroyed, New Westminster would not profit by the loss, on the
contrary, it would be to her greatest possible calamity.

This is not candid. Since Union has taken place one of Her
Majesty's Ships, much larger than any merchant ship that has ever
visited the Colony, has passed repeatedly between Esquimalt and
New Westminster. A vessel that could not by any possibility enter
Victoria. Even when proceeding to Victoria in Her Majesty's
Despatch boat "Sparrowhawk" I have to drive five miles to
Government House Victoria, whereas I embarked, on the Fraser
within a few yards of this house. There cannot be the slightest
doubt that New Westminster is admirably situated for a place
of large trade.

11. There are still local jealousies, though mitigated a
little by Union. There are difficulties but not of my creating.
It was not I who expended enormous sums of borrowed money in
making competing roads to a single gold mine. Nor did I start
two sea port Towns. Two Capitals close together. Sir James
Douglas's policy was clever, and may have been able, in the
furtherance of certain interests but it was in my opinion
deficient in the characteristic proverbially asserted to be
the best policy.

12. It may not be alien to the subject to enclose a
return of the average prices of the principal articles of
consumption according to the values reported by the Magistrates
resident in Cariboo during the years 1863, 1864, 1865 and 1866.
The steady reduction of prices is remarkable and shows that the
Miner has no cause of complaint against the Customs Ordinance of 1865.