Most Gracious Sovereign,
We, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of the Dominion of Canada in Parliament assembled, humbly approach Your Majesty for the purpose of representing:—
That during the present Session of Parliament we have taken into consideration the subject or the admission of the Colony Or Prince Edward Island into the Union or Dominion of Canada, and have resolved that it is expedient that such admission should be effected at as early a date as may be found practicable, under the one hundred and forty-sixth section of the "British North America Act, 1867", on the conditions hereinafter set forth, which have been agreed upon with the Delegates from the said Colony, that is to say:—
That Canada shall be liable for the debts and liabilities of Prince Edward Island at the time of the Union;
That in consideration of the large expenditure authorized by the Parliament of Canada for the construction of railways and canals, and in view of the possibility of a readjustment of the financial arrangements between Canada and the several Provinces now embraced in the Dominion, as well as the isolated and exceptional condition of Prince Edward Island, that Colony shall, on entering the Union, be entitled to incur a debt equal to fifty dollars per head of its population, as shewn by the Census Returns of 1871, that is to say: four millions seven hundred and one thousand and fifty dollars;
That Prince Edward Island not having incurred debts equal to the sum mentioned in the next preceding Resolution, shall be entitled to receive, by half-yearly payments, in advance, from the General Government, interest at the rate of five per cent. per annum on the difference, from time to time, between the actual amount of its indebtedness and the amount of indebtedness authorized as aforesaid, viz., four millions seven hundred and one thousand and fifty dollars;
That Prince Edward Island shall be liable to Canada for the amount (if any) by which its public debt and liabilities at the date of the Union, may exceed four millions seven hundred and one thousand and fifty dollars and shall be chargeable with interest at the rate of five per cent. per annum on such excess;
That as the Government of Prince Edward Island holds no lands from the Crown, and consequently enjoys no revenue from that source for the construction and maintenance of local works, the Dominion Government shall pay by half-yearly instalments, in advance, to the Government or Prince Edward Island, forty-five thousand dollars per annum, less interest at five per cent. per annum, upon any sum not exceeding eight hundred thousand dollars which the Dominion Government may advance to the Prince Edward Island Government for the purchase of lands now held by large proprietors;
That in consideration of the transfer to the Parliament or Canada of the powers of taxation, the following sums shall be paid yearly by Canada to Prince Edward Island, for the support of its Government and Legislature, that is to say, thirty thousand dollars, and an annual grant equal to eighty cents per head of its population, as shown by the Census returns of 1871, viz., 94,021, both by half-yearly payments in advance—such grant of eighty cents per head to be augmented in proportion to the increase of population of the Island as may be shown by each subsequent decennial Census, until the population amounts to four hundred thousand, at which rate such grant shall thereafter remain it being understood that the next Census shall be taken in the year 1881;
That the Dominion Government shall assume and defray all the charges for the following services, viz.:—
The salary of the Lieutenant Governor;
The salaries of the Judges of the Superior Court and of the District or County Courts when established;
The charges in respect of the Department of Customs;
The Postal Department;
The protection of the Fisheries;
The provision for the Militia;
The Lighthouses, Shipwrecked Crews, Quarantine and Marine Hospitals;
The Geological Survey;
The Penitentiary;
Efficient Steam Service for the conveyance of mails and passengers, to be established and maintained between the Island and the mainland of the Dominion, Winter and Summer, thus placing the Island in continuous communication with the Intercolonial Railway and the railway system of the Dominion;
The maintenance of telegraphic communication between the Island and the mainland Or the Dominion;
And such other charges as may be incident to, and connected with, the services which by the "British North America Act, 1867" appertain to the General Government, and as are or may be allowed to the other Provinces;