No. 115

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your despatch
No. 55 of the 11th August, stating that you had received a
Petition forwarded to you from Vancouver Island, representing that
the completion of the Bute Inlet route is most desirable in the
interest of the Colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island.

2. In the numerous despatches which Governor Seymour had
addressed to you on subjects arising out of Mr Waddington's
speculation, I cannot find that he has commented upon this
particular petition, but his despatch No. 91 of 7th July 1865,
and the enclosures which accompany it, will have placed you very
fully in possession of the views entertained in this Colony
regarding the Bute Inlet Road Scheme. It is needless therefore
for me to enter upon the merits of this Petition. One argument,
however, brought forward by the Petitioners may possibly claim
your attention. It is urged that the opening of a route by way
of Bute Inlet would reduce the price of living and labour in the
Cariboo district. Any project that would be the means of reducing
the rate of wages at our Northern Mines should receive the warmest
support of this Government, but to entail a further debt upon the
Colony for the construction of another rival route, even if that
route were feasible, would certainly not tend to accomplish the object.

3. The price of the staple articles in Cariboo during the
present mining season has been so far reduced as to be little in excess of
their cost in the lower portion of the Colony and it is considered,
by those best able to form an opinion, that the present rate of
freight is so low as to make it impossible for any further reduction
to take place until the agricultural resources of the Colony become
more fully developed. With this great reduction however in the
expense of living at the mines, which is at least 100 to 150 per
cent in comparison with former years no alteration has taken place
in the price of labour, and every miner who has reached Cariboo
has found immediate employment at rates varying from $8 to $12 a
day. It will thus be shown that the great requirement of the
Colony at the present time is increased population and not increased
means of access to Cariboo as the petitioners represent.

4. I consider the Fraser River Route is now so thoroughly
established that had there been a possibility of Mr Waddington
completing the Bute Inlet Road it would have been a signal failure
as a speculation. The probability that the more Northern Route
would benefit the Town of Victoria and at the same time damage
the trade of New Westminster and the towns on the Lower Fraser,
was I believe the inducement held out to the Merchants and Traders
of Victoria to furnish Mr Waddington with the means of commencing
the undertaking. The same feeling is, I fear, the origin of the
Petition which has been addressed to you on this subject.