PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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C.O.
Reference -
885
Sir Wm. Denison, &c. &c. &c.
No. 117.
____July_23, 1850.
Sir,
Downing Street, July 30, 1850.
1. I HAVE had under my consideration your despatch No. 195, of the 27th of December, in which you acknowledge the receipt of the instructions acquainting you that Her Majesty's Government could not agree to remit the debt of about £60,000 due to the Treasury, and in which you suggest some reasons for reconsidering that decision, and report certain measures which you have in the meantime adopted to supply some deficiencies in the current income of the colony, and to equalize the revenue and expenditure.
2. To those temporary expedients, being for the present year only, I will not object.
3. But with regard to the debt, Her Majesty's Government do not feel that there are sufficient grounds to justify them in remitting the claim of the Imperial Treasury. I enclose, for your infor- mation and guidance on this subject, the copy of a letter from the Treasury, by which you will perceive the grounds on which the Lords Commissioners consider it imperative on them to demand reim- bursement of the amounts advanced to the Agent, or irregularly drawn from the Commissariat Chest, and so becoming a charge on this country. On the other hand, being anxious to afford every rea- sonable accommodation to the colony, they have at my recommendation contented themselves with requiring that instalments of at least £5000 per annum, commencing with this year, should be paid until the debt be discharged. You will see in the letter from the Treasury the motives on which this concession is based, and the conditions upon which
it depends; and I have only to instruct you to govern yourself most strictly by their Lordships requirements, and to pay with punctuality into the Commissariat Chest, half-yearly and in preference
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