Your letter of the 28th ultimo, enclosing the
heads of a proposal for establishing telegraphic and postal
communication between Lake Superior and New Westminster, through the
agency of the Atlantic and Pacific Transit and Telegraph Company. These
proposals call for some observations from his Grace.
"New Westminster is named as the Pacific terminus of the road and
telegraph. His Grace takes for granted that if the Imperial Government
and that of British Columbia should find on further inquiry that some
other point on the coast would supply a more convenient terminus, the
Company would be ready to adopt it.
"Article 1. - His Grace sees no objection to the grant of land
contemplated in this Article, but the 'rights' stipulated for are so
indeterminate that without further explanation they could scarcely be
promised in the shape in which they are asked. He anticipates, however,
no practical difficulty on this head.
"Nos. 1 and 2. - The Duke of Newcastle, on the part of
British Columbia and Vancouver Island, sees no objection to the maximum
rate of guarantee proposed by the Company, provided that the liability
of the Colonies is clearly limited to 12,500l. per annum. Nor
does he think it unfair that the Government guarantee should cover
periods of temporary interruption from causes of an exceptional
character, and over which the Company has no control.
"But he thinks it indispensable that the Colonies should be
sufficiently secured against having to pay, for any lengthened period,
an annual sum of 12,500l. without receiving the corresponding
benefit, that is to say, the benefit of direct telegraphic
communication between the seat of government in Canada and the coast of
the Pacific.
