Petition to Queen Victoria

We the Municipal Council of the City of New Westminster in Your
Majesty's Colony of British Columbia and the only representative
body on the mainland of the colony desire humbly and
respectfully to approach your Majesty and as British subjects
crave for justice and redress.

We would humbly represent That in the year 1858 His Excellency
Sir James Douglas the then Governor of British Columbia was
instructed by Your Majesty's Government to select and lay out a
suitable site of the Capital of British Columbia. This
important task was assigned to Colonel Moody an officer of
great experience and judgment who commanded the detachment of
Royal Engineers then stationed in the colony and also filled the
position of Lieutenant Governor and Chief Commissioner of Lands
and Works. Colonel Moody after careful surveys and mature
consideration selected the present site of New Westminster as
the most suitable for that of the capital of British Columbia
and his Views were endorsed and recommended to the most
favorable Consideration of your Majesty in a dispatch from His
Excellency Sir James Douglas dated the 4th February 1859.

Your Petitioners would represent that in consequence of these
recommendations from Colonel Moody and His Excellency Sir James
Douglas the Capital of British Columbia was decided to be upon
the present site of New Westminster and the enclosed Royal
Proclamation declaring the same was duly made public through the
Government Gazette and by other means throughout the whole
colony your Majesty graciously condescending to name the then
embryo city New Westminster.

Your Petitioners would further represent that simultaneously
with the Royal Proclamation there appeared a notice in the
Government Gazette advertising the sale by Government of town
lots in the established capital of British Columbia and that
previous to the time of sale the fact of New Westminster having
been established by Royal Proclamation as the Capital of the
Colony was set forth as an inducement to those who wished to
make a permanent home in the Colony to purchase property.

That a distinct promise was made by the Government agent at the
time of the sale of lots that the entire proceeds of such sale
should be devoted to the making and improving of streets and
roads in the City.

Trusting implicitly in the distinct pledges given by Royal
Proclamation having a stedfast faith in the honor and integrity
of the Government and appreciating the warm interest in our
future welfare which your Majesty condescended to show by
bestowing a name upon the Young city a large number of colonists
attended the sale and the lots then sold brought most exorbitant
prices when compared with the then market value of real estate
and still more so from the fact that most of such purchasers
were men who with but limited means invested in lots in the
future capital with a view to making that city their permanent
home and not for speculative purposes.

Your Petitioners need hardly state with what perseverance and
energy they have overcome the wild obstructions of nature, how
they have after an immense expenditure of time and money and in
many instances by the investment of their all made this city
worthy of the name of the Capital of British Columbia as they
feel confident that your Majesty has been made cognisant of
these facts by higher authorities as also of the unswerving
loyalty at all times manifested by its inhabitants towards your
Majesty's most gracious person.

Your Petitioners would further represent that in accordance with
the prayer of certain petitions signed by parties interested in
real estate upon Vancouvers Island and also by the Vote of a
Legislative Council not invested with full representative powers
the seat of Government has been removed from this city to an
outlying Island contrary to the wish and voice of the Majority
of the Mainland. The result of this removal has been ruin and
disaster to many a home. The labor and persevering energy of
the inhabitants of this city during the past few years has by
this unjust removal been rendered comparatively worthless at a
time when they were beginning to look forward to reaping the
benefits likely to accrue from the location of the seat of Government.

Your Memorialists would humbly represent that the fact of New
Westminster having been established by Royal Proclamation and
law the Capital of British Columbia formed the sole basis of
their investments that solely upon those representations made
upon the part of the Government they were induced to pay high
prices for the town lots at the Government sale and using the
language of His Excellency Frederick Seymour Governor of the
Colony in his message to the Legislative Council 27th March
1867, they considered "public faith and honor" so purely pledged
as to justify the immense subsequent outlay of time and money
which has been expended within the city limits. The pledge given
upon the part of the Government at the time of sale that the
proceeds should be appropriated for improving the town was never
fulfilled but the whole amount of Ninety thousand dollars was
absorbed in the general revenue of the colony and the citizens
were compelled to carry out these important works through the
Medium of a municipality and general taxation.

Your Memorialists would further represent that to carry out the
construction of roads streets and bridges within the city they
were upon the faith of the permanent location of the Capital
induced to borrow the sum of Fifteen thousand dollars the
interest of which was paid by a municipal tax upon the real
estate in the city and that in consequence of the unexpected
removal of the Capital from New Westminster real estate has
become nearly worthless as taxation even to pay the interest
upon this amount is rendered impossible and the Municipality
unjustly deprived of the Means to fulfil its pledges to their
fellow colonists.

Your Petitioners would humbly represent that the improvements
made in this city upon the faith of its being the capital of the
colony amount to over a million dollars and that all benefits
likely to be derived therefrom they consider they have been
unjustly deprived of by the removal of the seat of Government.

Your Petitioners therefore humbly approach the throne of your
Majesty asking for compensation in full for the Violation of
those pledges so distinctly given by Royal Proclamation and
further ask that the inducements held out to intending
purchasers by the Government be honorably fulfilled.

Should your Majesty be pleased to consider that the justice of
our claim be not fully established your Petitioners feeling
fully confident that a large and loyal community are suffering
under a gross wrong would humbly and earnestly ask that a
commission of inquiry be appointed to thoroughly investigate the
matter and in their hands your Petitioners are fully prepared to
leave the decision. And Your Petitioners as in duty bound will
ever pray.