Murdoch and Rogers to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)

We have to acknowledge your letter of the 4th instant enclosing a
letter addressed to the Duke of Newcastle by the Governor of the
Hudsons Bay Co on the subject of the amount to be paid to the
Company on the retransfer of Vancouvers Island to the Crown, and
desiring us to report to His Grace, as early as possible, the amount
which, in our opinion, it would be advisable to submit for the
sanction of Parliament this year.

2. The claim of the Hudsons Bay Company has now been reduced to
three items vizt

£ S D

Balance of expenditure for public

Works & Establishments 8505. 6.11

Cost of sending out Settlers 25550. 0. 0

Half the expense of searching for

1; Coal at Fort Rupert  6234.12. 3

1; 40289.19. 2

3. To enable us to form an opinion on the point referred to us we
directed our Accountant to attend at the Hudsons Bay House this
morning and to ascertain, so far as was possible in the cursory
examination which the time permitted, that the above claims were
supported by the Books of the Company. He has reported to us that
the Officers of the Company afforded him every facility for
inspecting their books, that the Books appeared to have been very
carefully kept, and to support the claims put forward by the Company.
Of course, however, so hurried and general an examination cannot be
accepted as a guarantee of the correctness of the separate items of
the account, should H.M. Government think it necessary to scrutinize
them in detail.

4. Assuming, however, that such a scrutiny is not intended, the
expenditure for sending out Emigrants and for Searching for Coal at
Fort Rupert, amounting together to £31.784.12.3 may be considered as
admitted claims. But the balance due on account of expenditure for
public works and Establishments amounting to £8505.6.11 is made up
only to the end of 1857, and our Accountant considers that there is
reason to believe that the Land Sales and other sources of Revenue in
the two following years will have left a surplus of Revenue over
expenditure sufficient, not only to extinguish the Balance against
the Crown at the end of 1857, but to throw the balance the other way.
Under these circumstances it appears to us that it will be sufficient
to apply to Parliament during the present year for a sum not
exceeding £25,000, leaving for adjustment, whenever the complete
accounts shall be sent in, the further claims of the Crown on the
Company on account of the Local Revenue on the one side and the
expenditure on public works and establishments on the other up to the
close of 1859.