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This series consists of two volumes of indexes recording correspondence inward to the Colony of British Columbia Department of Lands and Works. The indexes were used to track the receipt of incoming correspondence and reports.

Volume 1 is titled "Index to letters received" and covers the years 1858 to 1864. The index is arranged by the sender, then chronologically. This includes sections for miscellaneous correspondence and reports and correspondence from Boards of Survey, Courts of Enquiry, the Governor, the Attorney-General, the Assistant Commissioners of Lands and Works, Gold Commissioners, and to letters from the Royal Engineers or Military. Some sections are missing: Military (p. 26-33), Captain J.M. Grant R.E. (p. 37-44), Captain R.M. Parsons (p. 45-50), Boards of Survey (p. 51-52), and Courts of Enquiry (p. 52-54).

Volume 2 indexes letters received by the Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works and covers 1858-1863. Items in this volume are also arranged by sender, then chronologically. However they only include sections for: the Governor; Captain Gosset of the Royal Engineers; Treasurer; Chartres Brew, Acting Treasurer; and HPP Crease, Attorney General. Most of the entries in volume 2 duplicate the contents of volume 1. Thus, this partial volume may have been used as a reference copy.

This series consists of letters and copies of letters from the Colonial Attorney General to the Governor forwarding ordinances and commenting on bills and ordinances, 1864-1870.

The series consists of certified copies of records pertaining to Indian lands obtained by the Dept. of the Attorney-General in 1976 from the Public Record Office, London.

It includes selected page copies of proclamations (PC 2/110), correspondence, and despatches (C.O.5/65, C.O.42/24 and C.O.398) from successive Secretaries of State to the Governor of British Columbia pertaining to Indian lands and Crown lands in North America as well as British Columbia.

This series consists of papers, mainly draft bills, regarding mining, 1859-1871. Records created before 1871 were created in the office of the Attorney-General of the Colony of British Columbia, and possibly the Attorney-General of the Colony of Vancouver Island, if the records relate to Vancouver Island and were created before 1866 when the two colonies merged. Records created in 1871 were created by the Attorney-General for the Province of British Columbia.

This series consists of bills, draft bills, orders of the day, notes on debates, estimates, draft legislation, statutes, subject files and other records of the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly, 1868-1872.

The first versions or drafts of a bill or act are known as the Blues version, after the blue paper used for the printing. The final version, printed by the Queen’s Printer, is on white paper. All blues versions will be identified as draft. Final versions will be noted at “Statute”.

Series consists of one Richfield Assize calendar for September 9, 1878.

This series contains legal opinions offered by Attorney General on a wide range of subjects. For more information on the subjects covered, please consult the attached finding aid.

Series contains a letter inward to Alexander Edmund Batson Davie, Attorney-General, from Andrew Onderdonk, 24 September 1886, presenting bill for lease of building at Port Moody for use as provincial jail. The letter contains 2 pages.

This series consists of a transcript of correspondence in and out regarding the Skeena River uprising, 1888.

This series contains selected correspondence inward received by the Attorney General from 1883 to 1888, and was originally part of an inward correspondence series created by the Attorney General’s Department. The bulk of the surviving inward correspondence from 1872 to 1937 may be found in GR-0429. Records in this series include correspondence inward, notes regarding cases and assize calendars.

The Attorney General’s Department used several numbering and filing systems during this time period; from 1872 to 1911 letters were assigned a number as they were received, and then filed in numerical order by year. There is no contemporary index for letters inward prior to 1911.

Although the items of correspondence from 1872 to 1911 were assigned numbers sequentially, the original order was not always maintained while the records were in the Attorney-General’s Department. This means that the items are no longer in strict numerical order within a year, and items relating to a single topic may sometimes be found together, regardless of the date when they were first received.

This series contains several draft documents and letters, the majority of which appear to have originated from the office of Theodore Davie, Attorney General of British Columbia from 1889 to 1892.
The records cover a diverse range of topics and do not appear to be arranged in any specific order. The majority of documents appear to be drafts of court documents or correspondence, many of which are hand-written or have hand-written annotations and corrections. There are also copies of pamphlets, published reports of select committees (court proceedings) and papers related to various Supreme Court of British Columbia cases.
Many of the records in this series appear to be related to matters of transportation, health, new legislation and legal cases in the Supreme Court. At least four files are related to railway or ferry transportation subsidies in the province and include indentures or other agreements between the Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works and the Kootenay Valley Company, the Canadian Pacific Railway, James Uren of the Savona Ferry, the Victoria and Sidney Railway Company, the Alberta and British Columbia Exploration Company Ltd, Nakusp & Slocan Railway Company and the Nelson and Fort Sheppard Railway.
Records related to health issues can be found in at least two files and mainly concern legislation around preventing the spread of smallpox including the appointment of Health Officers, the appointment of a commission to investigate outbreaks of smallpox, and mandatory vaccination. There are also letters and pamphlets sent to Chief Justice Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie from anti-vaccinators asking to repeal compulsory vaccination.
Drafts for new legislation and orders in council submitted by the President Executive Council can be found in at least three files and relate to welfare for new settler families arriving in BC from Scotland to work in the fishing industry (Crofter Settlement Act, 1892), education including the establishment of the University of British Columbia (British Columbia University Amendment Act), the census, amendments to city limits, appointments of public servants, issues around expenditures (Royal Commission for Investigating the Municipal Management of the City of Victoria), the alleged hostility of the Chilcotin, and the amendments or new drafts of the Act of Incorporation, the Court Act, the Juror’s Act, the Land Registry Act, The Magistrate’s Act, An Act to enable the Lieutenant Governor in Council to establish courts of revision from cities of the Province, the Municipal Act, The Land Agents Regulation Act, The British Columbia Railway Act, an Act respecting the unauthorized use of the provincial coat of arms, the Constitution Act, and the Mining Partnerships Act among other legislation.
There is also a significant amount of draft records related to legal proceedings in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. These include cases such as John Nicholson Muir vs. the Queen, the Queen vs J.D. Demers and Numa Demers, The Esquimalt Graving Dock Contract case, the Attack on Funeral Procession of Ellis Roberts case regarding hostilities between union and non-union miners, Horace S. Shepard vs. Samuel Maxwell regarding revenue taxes, and Cooley et al. vs. Fitzstubbs regarding rights to mining plots.

The series consists of three volumes of Victoria Gaol Warden's diaries dated 1893, 1896 and 1899.

This series consists of printed records relating to the following court cases: the Attorney General of the Province of British Columbia versus Theodore Ludgate, and the Attorney General of the Dominion of Canada regarding ownership of Deadman's Island, Burrard Inlet.

Records include Attorney-General vs. Ludgate report by Robert Cassidy to the Attorney General for British Columbia on the appeal of the Dominion of Canada from the 1901 judgment of Martin, J. (Queen's Printer, 1904, 7 p.). The series also includes various exhibits and other records, such as exhibit 6, "Extracts from blue book containing papers relating to the affairs of British Columbia, 1859-1864" (pp. 307-307(81)); "Evidence before Full Court in addition to that taken at trial" and Exhibits V,W,X,Y (pp. 366-430); reasons for judgment of Chief Justice Gordon Hunter, Justice M.W. Tyrwhitt Drake, and Justice P. A. Irving (pp. 431-445); and B.C. Supreme Court decisions (pp. 446-449). Box 2 contains several duplicates of pp. 307-307(81) and pp. 366-450.

The series consists of three volumes of telegrams to the Superintendent of Police, from 1896-1897, and 1900-1906. They are arranged alphabetically within chronological groupings.

The file consists of Attorney-General correspondence file 12/09. It contains a file of signatures on a petition to Messrs. Hon. Bowser, J.F. Ford, A.H. MeGowan, G.A. McGuire, J.F. Garden and Hon. R.G. Tatlow, Members of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly for the Electoral District of Vancouver City, 14-26 January 1909. The petition concerns the idea of including with the balloting at municipal elections "a local option system to determine whether or not the traffic in intoxicating liquors shall be permitted or prohibited." The petition was received by the Attorney General's office 28 January 1909.

This series consists of drafts of proclamations, ordinances, acts, and bills, 1858-1910. Records created before 1871 were created by the Attorney-General of the Colony of British Columbia, and possibly by the Attorney-General for the Colony of Vancouver Island. Records created after 1871 were created by the Department of the Attorney-General for the Province in British Columbia.

The series consists of correspondence from the Dept. of the Attorney-General to the Superintendent of Police between October 1898 and August 1912.

The series consists of the Board of Railway Commissioners for Canada western railway rates case. The western railway rates case investigated the rates for the carriage of freight traffic on railway lines operating in Canada, west of Port Arthur, Ontario. The case commenced in Ottawa on February 14, 1912, meeting over the next several months at various locations across Canada such as Toronto, Fort William, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Victoria; meetings continued through to the end of 1913. These records were created by the Board of Railway Commissioners for Canada. The results of the investigation concluded that the higher freight rates in Western Canada might be discriminatory, but they were justified and reasonable because of the greater competition that the railway companies faced in the eastern provinces.

These four bound volumes are arranged chronologically. The first volume, volume 145 (1912) contains a complete record and a detailed index and transcript of the western rates case previous to a special meeting in Ottawa on October 7th, 1912. The series also includes detailed transcripts of the investigation contained in volumes 168 (1913) and 189 (1913); volume 192 (1913) includes the arguments. These records are classified under one-time schedule 860591.

This series contains employment registers from the Victoria Gaol, 1861-1914. These volumes contain daily reports showing the prisoner's name, with or without labour, how/where employed and sometimes "remarks". The following Volumes are missing : 1 May 1900 - 16 Sep 1901 and 1 Feb 1903 - 14 Jun 1904. The final volume contains a notes that prisoners were transferred to Saanich Prison Farm on 12 Sep 1914.

This series consists of the records of the Victoria Gaol, 1859-1914. The 107 volumes include lists of prisoners, descriptions of prisoners, sentence books, work records, charge books, employment registers, registers of clothing issued, reports of prisoners' conduct, punishment books, gaolers' reports, duty rosters and daily diaries, ration books, food account books, stores and provisions account books, financial records, doctors' record books, medical order books, receipts and 1875 correspondence from the Superintendent of Police.

Records have been grouped by subject matter, then arranged chronologically when possible. The groupings are as follows: Volumes 1 to 6, Lists of prisoners in Victoria gaol; Volumes 7 to 13, Description lists; Volumes 14 to 17, Sentence books; Volumes 18 to 22, Work records; Volumes 23 to 35, Charge books; Volumes 36 to 40, Prisoners conduct records; Volumes 41 to 107, Gaolers' records.

This series consists of a charge and sentence book from Victoria Gaol, 1904-1914. Information recorded includes date entered, name, date of sentence, charge, admitting officer, time and date prisoner received, sentence, by whom sentenced, property received, cash received, and receipt for propensity on discharge.

This series contains Cranbrook court registry correspondence with the Dept. of the Attorney-General. It includes some Magistrate's and Police court records.

This series consists of records of the Provincial Gaol at Nanaimo mostly between 1911 and 1914. Volumes include a list of prisoners, 1893-1911, charge and sentence book, 1911-1914, prisoners' sentence book, prisoners' description book, prisoners' employment book, prisoners' effects book, list of provisions and stores, Gaoler's testimonials at Nanaimo Gaol, 1911-1914 and at the Saanich Prison Farm 1914-1917, punishment book, prisoners' keep account book, gaoler's diary 1911, food account books, an indexed letterpress book of correspondence outward from the Warden J. Munro and a daily minute book of admissions, discharges, calls, visitors, church services, etc.

Punishment book showing "punishments awarded for breaches of prison discipline in Provincial Gaol". The volume indicates the date, prisoner's name, nature of the offence, by whom reported, sentence, date of sentence and the signature of the warden, J. Munro.

This series consists of records documenting the admission and discharge of prisoners, their daily activities and medical needs; account books for the running of the gaol; time books for the guards and gaolers; and a letterpress book of correspondence outward from the warden, J. Munro. Volumes 1-5 are statements showing the Employment of Prisoners in Saanich Prison Farm. This is a daily record which shows the date, number and name of prisoner, all are male, all do hard labour, most are under sentence and a few are under capital sentence.

This series consists of records of the New Westminster Goal, including prisoner description books, monthly lists of prisoners, and prisoners' effects books, 1875-1917.

Description books are a record and description list of all prisoners received into New Westminster Gaol, showing date, name, occupation, age, height, hair, eyes, complexion, religion, nationality, proportions, weight, peculiar marks, read and write, married or single, temperate or intemperate, offence, sentence number of convictions and remarks.

Return of Prisoners confined in New Westminster Gaol are lists arranged by month showing prisoner number and name, offence or charge, date of trial, when received in gaol, where and by whom tried, sentence, religion, nationality, whether can read or write, date of discharge, conduct, occupation in gaol, and remarks.

Prisoners' effects books show date, name, property, officer, remarks, charge and sentence.

Records are arranged chronologically by type of record.

The series consists of 12 volumes of correspondence from the Superintendent of Provincial Police outward to Attorney General. The records were created between December 1898 and April 1918 and are letterpress copies. There are subject indexes at the start of each volume.

This series consists of records created by the Inspector of Legal Offices in the Department of the Attorney-General from 1918-1921. There is one file labelled Department of Industries, as well as one file of some additional records. Most records are correspondence with the Commissioner of Industries regarding loans and mortgages to various companies. Some records also relate to the Superintendent of BC Soldier Settlement regarding housing and loans for soldiers.

Records include correspondence, minutes, memoranda, agreements, indentures and copies of Orders-in-Council.

The series consists of Alexander Malcolm Manson’s correspondence written between December 1922 and December 1923 in British Columbia. The correspondence documents his personal life and career during this time period. Some of the correspondence relates to Malcom’s time at his law firm, Williams & Manson, in Prince Rupert, BC, where he practiced law until 1922. Other correspondence in this series relates to his time as a member of the provincial legislature representing the Omineca riding (1916-1933) and his appointment as Attorney-General, King’s Counsel, and as Minister of Labour on April 12, 1922. Some of the files document personal matters relating to his family. The records were created by Alexander Malcolm Manson during his tenure as Attorney General (1922-1928) and were maintained by the Department of the Attorney-General.

These outgoing correspondence files are arranged chronologically by date. They are classified under one-time schedule 860591.