Hamilton to Rogers (Permanent Under-Secretary)

With reference to Mr Elliot's letter of the 11th
Ultimo, in which he transmitted a copy of a despatch from
the Acting Governor of British Columbia, enclosing an application
from Mr O'Reilly the Gold Commissioner of the Cariboo
District to be relieved from liability on account of a sum of
public money amounting to £586.5s.10d, of which a Constable
travelling with him had been robbed in October 1862, I am
directed by the Lords Commissoners of Her Majesty's Treasury
to transmit to you the enclosed copy of a Report of the
Commissioners of Audit, showing how far Mr O'Reilly stands
charged with this sum as part of a larger sum of £3475.13s.3d
as Collector's Balances not passed through the Treasurer's
Cash Books for 1864.

It is to be regretted that the late Governor did not bring
this subject under the consideration of the Secretary of State
at an earlier period, when more light might have been thrown
by him upon the question of the responsibility of Mr O'Reilly
for the loss, and Their Lordships would here remark, with
reference to the Statement of the Commissioners of Audit that the
sum stolen in 1862 is outstanding against the Accountant in
the Accounts of 1864, as part of a larger sum, shows the
existence of an unreasonable delay in bringing up the Accounts
of sub-accountants in British Columbia, to which They consider
that the attention of the Governor should be called with a view
to obtaining a system of earlier account for public monies in the Colony.

With reference however to the immediate question of relieving
Mr O'Reilly from responsibility for the loss of the sum of
£586.5s.10d, it appears to Their Lordships that that officer,
on the robbery being reported to him, took steps to investigate the
matter by offering a reward, and by bringing the Constable
before a Justice of the Peace, though without any satisfactory
result, and further by dismissing the Constable on account of
his culpable carelessness, and taking into consideration the
alleged difficulty of transporting money in safety through the
upper part of the Colony and the other circumstances reported,
My Lords are of opinion that Mr O'Reilly may on this
occasion be relieved from responsibility for the loss, but with
a warning, if he is still in the service, to exercise more vigilance
over persons accompanying him to whom he entrusts public monies.