Colvile to Newcastle

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Mr Merivale's
letter of the 14th Instant transmitting an Extract of a Despatch from
the Governor of Vancouver's Island dated 11th Novemr, and have to
express the thanks of the Governor and Committee for the communication.

The religious and moral instruction of the Colonists, referred to
in Governor Douglas's despatch, and recommended by your Grace to the
attention of the Governor & Committee, has always been considered by
them an object of great importance, and they have every desire to make
such provision for it as the wants of the
Settlers may seem from time to
time to require, and as the means at the Company's disposal may permit.
By reference to my letter to the late Secretary for the Colonies under
the date of the 1st December last, it will be seen that a Clergyman
of the Church of England was engaged in 1848 to act as Chaplain to the
Company at Fort Victoria, and to conduct a school for boys. The
Reverend Gentleman has, as far as the Directors have been informed,
performed Divine Service regularly twice every Sunday, and discharged
the other duties required of a Clergyman, while his wife has conducted a
school for girls. There is likewise a school for the poorer class of
the community, and another schoolmaster was sent out in August last to
conduct a school in the neighbourhood of the farms about to be
established by the Puget Sound Agricultural Company.

The building set apart at Fort Victoria for religious worship
having been intended to answer only a temporary purpose, was adapted to
the then state of things in the Settlement, but in order to provide for
the wants of an increasing population instructions have been sent to
Mr Douglas, as will be seen by the following extract of a letter from
the Secretary to Mr Douglas, dated Januy 14 1853.

It will be necessary to provide Churches for the several districts
or parishes as the population increases, and it will no doubt tend to
concentrate the Settlements, and to form villages if they are built as
soon as there may appear to be a determination of the Settlements to any
particular place. At an early period therefore, the site for the
Church, Burying ground, and School house of the district should be
carefully selected and a reserve made for these buildings,
and for the
residences of the Clergyman and Schoolmaster, so that they may be placed
near and convenient to the Church. The buildings should be of a simple
and convenient form, without expensive ornaments or construction, and be
erected upon dwarf walls to keep them dry, and be strong frame houses,
weather boarded outside, and lath and plaster or close lined with wood
inside. When it is proposed to erect any such buildings, you will have
to send home a plan and estimate of the cost, as the Colonial Office
requires that these should be submitted to them, and their sanction
obtained before the work is commenced.

As it appears that a workable Seam of Coal has been discovered, a
considerable number of vessels may be expected to resort to the Island
for that article, which
is required in large quantities at San Francisco
and Panama. It is therefore highly necessary that one of Her Majesty's
cruizers should be stationed there to preserve the peace and good order;
and I submit that this matter deserves your Grace's early consideration.