No. 48

1. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch No
20, 11th April 1865, transmitting extracts from a Despatch addressed
to the Board of Admiralty by Rear Admiral Denman in which he suggests
that the Colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island should
employ a colonial vessel for the purposes of defence and for
preventing aggressions of the Indians against British Traders; and
requesting my opinion on the practicability of adopting Admiral
Denman's suggestions and providing for the requisite expenditure out
of Colonial funds.

2. This subject occupied my attention at an early period after my
arrival in the Colony and I concur generally in the views expressed
by Rear Admiral Denman.

3. I feel sure that true economy and the peace and character of our
Government will be best attained by the employment of a better class
of vessel than the Gunboats heretofore employed on the coast of this
Island; and I think that such vessels should be commanded by Officers
having special aptitude for this peculiar service.

4. The adoption of some such course will appear all the more
necessary when it is remembered that it is physically impossible to
connect the outlying settlements with the seat of Government by
roads, and that the cupidity and treachery of the Indian character
can only be held in check by the prospect of prompt and certain
punishment when they assail the lives and property of white men.

5. On the other hand I fear it would be impossible to obtain the
necessary funds from the Legislature of this Colony even did the
finances afford it.

6. I have during the present Session estimated for funds for the
employment of an Indian Agent or Agents in the out-settlements where
at present there are neither Magistrates, Police, nor other
protection for life or property. My application to the Legislative
Assembly resulted in a recommendation from that Body that I should
"appoint unpaid Magistrates from among the settlers to be remunerated
by fees."

7. I have been obliged to decline the responsibility of acceding to
this recommendation because few or none of the settlers are above the
status of labouring men, and the employment of such persons in a
position requiring great tact and special qualities would be a sure
mode of bringing the two Races into collision.

8. Whiskey selling by unprincipled whites is in my opinion the bane
of the Indian race, and the immediate or remote cause of all the
murders and robberies committed by them whether
inter se or on white men.

9. There are no sufficient local Laws to repress this dangerous and
disgraceful traffic from which enormus profits are derived and in
which many persons are interested, nor is there a probability of any
such Laws being enacted. The Honorable the Speaker who exercises
much influence in the Legislative Assembly very recently stated his
opinion, which is shared in by many other Members, that the sale of
liquor to Indians should not only be legalized but that they should
be permitted to manufacture it if they could.

10. The existing law imperfect as it is, has been administered by
officers holding these or similar opinions, and the results have
naturally been a failure to repress this degrading traffic.

11. Liquor sellers cannot be convicted on Indian Evidence alone, and
hence they enjoy a comparative impunity for their
crimes, for such I regard the sale of poisonous and maddening
alcohol to excitable savages.

12. I introduced a Bill (a copy of which I enclose) to remedy this
latter evil, but it was, after passing the Legislative Council,
rejected by the Legislative Assembly without an attempt to amend it.

13. Hence the strange anomaly exists that the evidence upon which a
culprit may be arraigned, convicted, and executed in British Columbia
cannot be received in the Courts of Justice in Vancouver Island.

14. It will be necessary for me to address you on the general
subject of Indian management at an early period, a subject which
causes me great anxiety from want of powers to deal with it effectively.

15. I cannot better conclude my Despatch than by directing your
attention to the Report of Commander Jones R.N., a very active and
intelligent officer whom I had lately occasion to send to Cowitchan
and Comox Districts, a copy of which I enclose.