§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, If the attention of the Colonial Office has been directed to the constant complaints of the Province of British Columbia, that, although it is ten years since they were incorporated into the Dominion of Canada, the main condition by which they were induced to assent to such incorporation, viz.: the construction of a railway between the Pacific seaboard and the Canadian railway system has, in spite of frequent protests, not yet been commenced upon that seaboard; whether it is the fact that a very large portion of the most fertile part of Vancouver's Island, including very large coalfields, has for years past been transferred by Act of the Legislative Assembly to the Canadian Government at their request under the railway clause of the terms of Union to accelerate the construction through Vancouver's Island of the said line of railway; and, whether, under these circumstances, the Colonial Office have any intention of representing to the Canadian Government the necessity of complying, as soon as possible, with the terms of the Carnarvon settlement, which, with the sanction of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, were in 1874 agreed to both by Canada and British Columbia?
MR. GRANT DUFFSir, my answer to the first two Questions must be in the affirmative. As to the third, I have to say that a gentleman representing the Legislature of British Columbia is at present in this country for the purpose of urging the views and claims of the Province; and after considering his representations and conferring with the Premier of the Dominion, now also in this country, Her Majesty's Government will decide whether any and what further action can properly be taken by them in connection with this matter.