Murdoch to Elliot (Assistant Under-Secretary)

I have to acknowledge your letter of 7th instant, with one from the
Governor of the Hudsons Bay Co on the subject of the land
surrendered to the Crown at Victoria VanCouvers Island.

2. Governor Douglas proposes as a final settlement of the questions
in dispute between the Crown and the Company that the Crown on the
one hand should give up a lot of land at the foot of Fort Street
assigned to it by the Agreement of Febry 1862, for a Harbour Masters
Office &c, and that the Company on the other hand should surrender in
exchange for it a lot at the foot of Broughton Street for the same
purpose—and should also give up a portion of the Government Reserve
marked Z on the plan prepared by Mr McTavish, and the lots 1603,
1605 & 1607—the first being the lot on which the Post Office stands
and the other adjoining lots required for the public service. The
Governor of the Hudsons Bay Co in the letter you now enclose
expresses the readiness of the Company to accept this arrangement—so
far as they have the power to do so. But they desire it to be
understood (as is reasonable) that they surrender only the rights
they actually possess, and that the arrangement is made subject to
and saving the right of third parties (if any) to whom the lots in
question may have been already conveyed.

3. It only remains to communicate Sir Edmund Head's letter to
Governor Douglas and to direct Governor Douglas as soon as the Lots in
question have been transferred to the Crown, to prepare an accurate
map of the Land and to settle with the Agent of the Company the terms
in which the land to be secured to the Company and that to be
returned to the Crown are to be described in the reconveyance of the
Island to the Crown. The reconveyance must I presume be effected by
Letters Patent under the Great Seal revoking the letters Patent of
Janry 1849 by which the Island was granted to the Hudsons Bay Company.

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