Separate

I have the honor to transmit the copy of Resolutions of the House of
Assembly of Vancouver Island which were transmitted to your Grace in
my Predecessor's despatch No. 3, Legislative, dated 12th Feby 1864.

2. The circumstances connected with the passage and transmission of
these Resolutions appeared to me so unusual that I deemed it my duty
to supply what I conceived to be an important omission before they
could be advantageously or regularly submitted to Your Grace.

3. I therefore brought the Resolutions under the notice of my
Executive Council in the Minute, marked No. 2, and subsequently with
their unanimous concurrence I transmitted them for the consideration
and opinion of the Legislative Council (to whom they had not
previously been submitted), with the message marked No. 3.

4. The Reply to this latter Message is herewith, marked, No. 4.
I also enclose newspaper copies of the Debates of the Legislative
Council on this subject, which you will observe was brought under
consideration on the 11th April, and the decision only arrived at on
the 3rd May and communicated to me this day (5th May).

5. My principal object in the present Despatch is to place the
proceedings of the Local Legislature before Her Majesty's Government
without delay.

6. These proceedings appear to me to be singularly anomalous and
inconsistent, involving some questions upon which I am unwilling to
offer a hasty opinion.

7. I do not think I am overstating the case, when I assume that
the Local Legislature of this Colony are desirous of securing the
benefit of good Government without the burden of providing for the
cost of it,

*

as the conditions under which they profess to desire re-union with
the Sister Colony render such a consummation impracticable.

8. The Legislature has been in Session since the Month of September
1863, and I do not apprehend that any beneficial result would accrue
from again submitting the subject, in any form, for consideration
during the present Session. It is therefore my intention to prorogue
the Assembly as soon as the dilatory manner in which the Public
business is transacted will permit.

9. It will appear on reference to the accompanying Estimates,
approved and assented to by my Predecessor, that the Legislative
Assembly, though convened in September 1863, deferred voting the
Supplies till the 3rd March 1864, or two months after the period
from which they were to take effect; and that, while they ignore, and
strike out, many items in the Civil List, they deal with various
items of "Crown Revenue" as assets for General Colonial purposes.

**

10. As an illustration of the complications which the action of the
Assembly must eventually produce, I may point to the fact that the
"Treasurer's" Salary is struck out of the Estimates, though nine
tenths of that officer's duty consists in the receiving and
disbursing and accounting for, the General Revenue raised by
taxation. The same observation applies with more or less force to
every officer whose Salary has been struck out of the Estimates.

11. My short experience in this Colony renders me diffident in
offering any very decided opinion; but I cannot refrain from
expressing my convictions that the resources of this Colony, properly
administered, are ample to meet all reasonable demands, such as
proposed in Your Grace's despatch (Separate, dated 15th June 1863)
and that the present mode of raising Revenue is crude, unproductive,
and inequitable.

***

12. While I feel it my imperative duty to administer the Laws and
Government as Established, I cannot suppress my belief that the
separation of this Colony from British Columbia will prove a great
misfortune to both. I have made no secret of this opinion, and I am
so thoroughly impressed with the great importance of re-union for the
ultimate interest of both Colonies, that I will most cheerfully
relinquish the Office I hold the moment it can be effected. I lean
to the belief that personal rather than public interests have caused
the Separation, to which Your Grace reluctantly assented.

13. I venture to predict that a re-union, if it do take place,

will effect a very trifling saving on the Civil Lists of the Colonies
as Your Grace has proposed them.

14. It is unnecessary for me to offer any lengthened comment upon
the Resolutions now adopted by both branches of the Legislature: any
action taken in the direction of a Union, must be in accordance with
the wishes and interests of the people of both Colonies, and I
therefore look upon this appeal to Your Grace as a simple waste of
time which can effect nothing.

15. I enclose a newspaper extract from the proceedings of the
Legislature of British Columbia bearing upon this subject.

16. I will only add, in conclusion, that I differ widely from the
arguments and alleged facts addressed by the Majority of the
Legislative Council, both of which are in my opinion very fallacious
and exaggerated.