Colonial Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of Lands & Works

Colonial Secretary’s Office
25 February 1863

Sir,

I have duly received and laid before the Governor your letter of the 16th instant No. 23 on the subject of the Bute Inlet route and forwarding a letter from Mr. Waddington in which he solicits an extension to 10 years of the period of the projected Charter in consideration of the insurmountable difficulties he has met with in obtaining support from Capitalists to enable him to open the proposed Waggon Road and in which he agrees in return for such extension to reduce the maximum amount of toll from 5 to 3 cents.

2. His Excellency has duly weighed all the arguments you have so clearly put forth, and he has also had a long personal interview with Mr. Waddington at which all the difficulties in connection with the undertaking were very fully discussed.

3. His Excellency still believes that although Mr. Waddington has hitherto only found insurmountable difficulty in respect of obtaining the necessary capital under the proposed Charter, that he will yet find that the natural difficulties are equally insurmountable. Mr. Waddington is however sanguine of success in both cases if his charter be extended as proposed.

I have &c

(signed) William A. G. Young