Victoria, B.C. 9 June 1881 4-sided Marcus Smith Letter to his wife
Lot 80 in our auction Saturday 30th October 2021
#canadianrailwaysurvey #bcsurveyor #marcussmith #bchistory
Victoria B.Columbia
June 9th, 1881
My dear Wife
We have had a very pleasant trip-arrived in San Francisco last Sunday at noon and left next day at 2p.m. I had therefore no time to see Mr.Goodwin’s friend Mr.Laver as Monday was a holiday- and people all out pic-nicking- we reached Victoria after midnight Thursday last- pleasant passage no sea sickness- a great many old friends have called on me here, all glad to see me. We leave for New Westminster to morrow- which place will be my post office address, and my head quarters will be at the Old Govt. buildings, about 1 ½ miles up the river-
I am glad I have nothing to do with the works under construction from Yale to Kamloops lake- as there appears to be general discontent Each engineer attends to his own section- of which there are four Cambie, Keefer, McLeod & Hannlin Each is independent of the other and has to act on his own responsibility Schreiber is Chief but when here he drove through at the rate of 80 miles a day would not look at the works or take any responsibility- Trutch is Government agent, but is a busy body
Discusses engineering questions with the Engineers- but will take no responsibility. Both Schreiber and him seem agreed on one thing viz to pinch the Engineers- no allowance will be made for furniture or for travelling expenses of the Engineer’s families as formerly and McLeod is the only one that has gone into the houses built for them- the rest are in tents or lodgings- and most of the families in Victoria-
There will be a glorious out crop of this state of things- and in the muddle- no one will be responsible. Tell Goodwin or Brophy about this but don’t give up this- Trutch I find is very unpopular – here as he is ostentatious and haughty, and considered as a spy, and a disturber instead of a peace maker between the Dominion and Provincial Govt. And will cause trouble to the former. This however is none of my business but I forsee that the time will come when he must cease to muddle with engineering matters-
I am much hurried getting ready to start to morrow- so with love and kisses to all- I am
Yours ever
M. Smith
