No. 66

I have had under my consideration your Despatch No. 64 of the 31st
of August and the correspondence by which it was accompanied relative to
the claim of the late Attorney General to certain fees which you
required him to refund into the Colonial Treasury.

This correspondence raises the general question whether the
Attorney General of Vancouver Island is entitled to receive fees for
work done for the Colonial Government.

Although I informed you in my Despatch No. 19 of the 11th of July
that a Colonial Attorney General is generally speaking not at liberty to
charge the Government for his services, yet in the case of Vancouver
Island, as the Salary assigned to that Office is only Three hundred
pounds [£300] a year, and as the Government work seems to be of some
considerable amount, I do not think that he can be required to do it for
that Salary.

I therefore consider that the Attorney General must under present
circumstances be paid for his services and that in the absence of any
agreement to the contrary he is entitled to the usual fees. If
therefore in the present instance it is true in point of fact that Mr.
Cary's charges were the usual charges in such cases, which there can be
no difficulty in ascertaining in the Colony, I am of opinion that he
should receive them.

If on the contrary the assessment of the taxing master is to be
considered as a decision of this point (i.e. if it is a taxation not as
between suitors, but as between Attorney and Client) then the Government
should retain the money which Mr. Cary has refunded.