No. 17

I have the honor to transmit to you a copy of a letter from the
Crown Agents with its enclosures stating the circumstances under which
they had been compelled to satisfy from funds in their hands the claims
for interest and Sinking Fund on the Loans of British Columbia to the
amount of £4,125.

I have received with extreme surprise an announcement that the
Officer Administering the Government had sent to the Crown Agents, in
payment of claims which it was urgently necessary to satisfy, a Draft
upon a Bank with which the Colony of British Columbia had no assets, and
by which, as far as at present appears, he had no sufficient reason for
supposing that the Draft would be honoured. I trust that some
explanation of this proceeding will be furnished.

In the present instance the Crown Agents have received my authority
for meeting this claim from funds in their hands in order to save the
credit of the Colony, but I can hold out no promise that the same course
will be taken in any future case.

I have to request that remittances may at once be made to this
Country sufficient to reimburse this advance and to meet future demands
upon the Crown Agents.