No. 19

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatches Nos.
37 and 38, of the 3rd and 5th of December last on the Subject of the
surrender to the Crown of the unsold land in the Town of Victoria.

I have referred these Despatches to the Governor of the Hudson's
Bay Company, and I now transmit to you a copy of Mr. Berens' reply.

In the absence of any report from you, on the Letter addressed by
Mr McTavish to the Colonial Secretary, dated the 7th January, which
forms an Enclosure in Mr. Berens' Letter, I can only impress upon you
the importance of not raising unnecessary controversies with the
Company's Officers, but of conducting the correspondence in a liberal
and conciliatory spirit, the primary object being to put an end to the
questionable tenure of the Company which is calculated to impede the
progress of the Colony.

With regard to the lot of land reserved for the Office of the
Harbor Master, I shall defer any final decision until I am in possession
of your report on the subject, but I am desirous that you should deal
with this question also in the same spirit, not of course sacrificing
the interests of the public to the convenience of the Company, but not on
the other hand taking advantage of what is said to have been an error on
the part of Mr. Dallas to expose the Company to unnecessary expense or
embarrassment.