INDIAN RESERVE COMMISSIONER, B.C.
province. In all branches of the department we have been heavily taxed to keep the work from falling behind; and in this office I can testify that every one connected therewith is ever ready to work extra long hours to ensure that end.

I have, & c.,
A.W. VOWELL,
Indian Superintendent, B.C.
BRITISH COLUMBIA,
INDIAN RESERVE COMMISSION,
VICTORIA, 8th September, 1896.

The Honourable
The Superintendent General of Indian Affairs,
Ottawa.

SIR, - I have the honour to submit for your information my annual report as Indian Reserve Commissioner.

I must, in the first place, draw your attention to the fact that no surveys of reserves have been undertaken during the current year. The services of Messrs. Skinner and Devereux having been temporarily dispensed with by the department, owing to the lack of funds, the unfinished surveys in the coast and Cassiar districts remain in the same position stated in my last year's report, and they cannot, unless under exceptionally favourable circumstances, be completed by two parties in one season.

The unsurveyed reserves within the railway belt, and those allotted last year for the Alkali Lake and Canoe Creek Indians also remain unfinished, and will occupy a party for about four months.

The services of Mr. Green, the surveyor, who has been specially attached to the commission, were dispensed with, by authority of the department, in the month of March, and the work he was then engaged in, viz., plotting the field-notes of Messrs. Skinner and Devereux, and the usual technical and routine work of the office, were necessarily discontinued.

Mr. Green was on 18th May employed to resurvey the Musqueam Reserve for the Langley Band of Indians, and also certain of the Cowichan Reserves; both these works were urgently needed, and special reports in connection with them were forwarded to the department.

The projected work of the commission, as applied for by the local agents, and approved by the department, comprises additions and extensions to reserves situated partly on the mainland and partly on the island of Vancouver, viz., reserves for the Nicola Lake, Sliammon, Klahoose, Euclataw and Clayoquot Indians.

To the above must be added the completion of the allotments for the Kishpiax Indians, on the Skeena. This work was interrupted by the Indians, who refused to accept any reserves at the time the commission visited the Upper Skeena.

I have, & c.,
P. O'REILLY,
Indian Reserve Commissioner.