The Agent of the Hudson Bay Company has presented me an account for
signature being a voucher of the balance between the amount expended by
the Hudson's bay company on the colony, and the receipts of duties,
sales, royalties &c collected in the colony;
The Account asserts that they have expended $2736 (dollars) of
which $2130 (dollars) are for goods paid to Indians to extinguish their
title to the land about Victoria and Soke harbours, the remainder also
for goods paid also to Indians for work done for the colony, provisions,
and ammunition for the same Indians. The receipts amount to $1489
(dollars) (from which 10 per cent is to be deducted according to  the charter of grant to the Hudsons bay Company) and consists entirely of
royalties on coal for the last two years, land sales there are none, as
I have previously informed your Lordship. On examining the account I
found that for the goods paid to the Indians a price was charged three
times as great as what they are in the habit of paying them at, for
their own work; respecting this and some inaccuracies I detected in the
account I addressed a letter to the agent; he corrected the errors but
made no alteration in the prices, and in the course of the conversation
gave me to understand that they did not expect the charter of grant to
be renewed at the expiration of the five years (January 1854) and that
then they would be entitled to a reimbursement of their expenditure. At
this rate they may continue for the next three years paying away a few
goods to Indians to extinguish their claims to the soil, and by
attaching an ideal value to their goods they will at the end of that
time appear as creditors of the colony to an overwhelming amount, so
that the foundation will be laid of a colonial debt, which will for ever
prove a burden. I beg your Lordship to observe that, at the prices they
usually pay goods at, the receipts are amply sufficient to cover the
expenditure and to have a balance in favor of the colony —
Under these circumstances I yesterday signed an amended copy of the
account, as a voucher for the goods, adding a protest that the balance
shall not be considered a true one, as I conceive it to lie on the other
side and to be against the Hudson's bay Company;
The whole financial arrangement and expenditure is of course
entrusted to the Hudson's bay company but I conceive that my
instructions, (Art 20) containing directions about the public money authorize my exerting a negative voice on the present occasion, to
prevent the revenue which does exist, and is much required for internal
improvement, (roads especially) being swallowed up by the Hudson's bay
company, as profit on their goods —
I trust that your Lordship will lose no time in appointing my
successor, as my health has been very bad for some months, and I feel it
impossible to remain here much longer, on account of increasing 
weakness; my instructions direct that in the event of my death or
absence, and there being no Lieutenant Governor, the Senior member of
the Council shall for the time assume the government, (Art 40) but I
have not been able to appoint a council, as there is no one in the
Island above the grade of a Labourer except the servants of the Hudson's
bay Company, and I have previously stated to your Lordship, my reasons
for considering them unfit for Magisterial appointments, of any kind;