Peel to Rogers (Permanent Under-Secretary)

With reference to your letter of 22nd Ultimo, on
the subject of the Assay Establishment at New Westminster,
British Columbia, I am commanded by the Lords Commissioners
of Her Majesty's Treasury to transmit to you the enclosed
copy of a Report on the subject from the Master of the Mint,
dated 2nd Instant, and to request that you will state to the Duke of Newcastle that Their Lordships are prepared,
under the circumstances, to accede to the proposal of the
Governor of British Columbia, contained in his despatch of
10th April last, and to sanction the continuance for the present, of the Assay Establishment at New Westminster
with the following reduced Staff: Vizt

one Chief Assayer.

one Assistant or Operative Melter.

My Lords request that a Return may be furnished,
annually, in a form similar to that forwarded by the
Governor, of the Work performed by the Assay Department,
in order that opportunity may be afforded for reconsidering
the question of the Establishment or, perhaps, of withdrawing
the Department altogether, if not eventually self-supporting.