MR BROGDEN AND THE GOVERNMENT.

Evening Star, Issue 3044, 20 November 1872, Page 4

MR BROGDEN AND THE GOVERNMENT.

When the Wellington City M.H.R.’s, Messrs Hunter and Pearce, addressed their constituents last week, Mr Travers, who is the legal adviser of the Messrs Brogden, made a speech, in the course of which he attacked the Government for refusing to release bis principals from their engagement to introduce immigrants, the result of which, he said, would be that they would lose 1.60,000. Mr Travers asked that meeting whether it was worth the while of Mr Brogden to come out to New Zealand to make L 700,000 worth of railways—whether it was fair, while Mr Brogden was introducing to the Colony the very bone and sinew which could make the country —was it fair to ask him because he might be making money with one hand to throw it away with the other. The facts of the case as stated by the Independent are these : When Messrs Brogden had entered upon contracts for the construction of railways in this Colony, the question of a sufficiency of labor at cnee suggested itself to their minds. The ordinary immigration arrangements of the Government were not considered equal to the emergency, for several reasons—not the least of which was that whilst the Government was desirous of encouraging the immigration of families of the settler class, the contractors requited a very different stamp of people. Moreover, the contractors did not care to depend for labor upon chance ; they were anxious to secure their own hands from England, engaged by them to work for the firm for a specified period on their arrival in the Colony. Negotiations took place between Messrs Brogden and the Agent-General in London, and after considerable discussion it was agreed that Messrs Brogden should select and engage a certain number of workmen in England; that they should be brought out by the Government, Messrs Brogden giving their promissory notes for the repayment of the passage money—Llo per head—and the firm charging their immigrants with Ll6 per bead to cover risk of losses through nonpayment, and charges for outfit. There is no necessity to discuss whether or not Messrs Brogden made a good or a bad bar* gain. They thought it was a good one, and it was one deliberately entered into. But they miscalculated their ablility to control the men they exported, and could not obtain the class of men they expected. Strikes took place, and the invidious position in which Messrs Brogdeu’s workmen occupied as compared with those brought out by the Government helped te increase the difficulty. Then Messrs Brogden applied that their men should be allowed to come out at the same rate as the Government immigrants; but here was the difference which at once raised an objection to this course The men brought out by Messrs Brogden were im* ported by them for their own special purposes ; they were bound to work for a certain period only for the firm, and it was harly fair to expect that the Colony would make a present to Brogden and Sons of L 5 per head of the number of their workmen, tva would have been the case. Had any of these men applied for passages in the ordinary way to the Agent-General, they would have been brought out at ihe same rate as other immigrants. Mr Brogden, finding that this arrangement was likely to be a source of a great deal of trouble and embarrassment, and possibly of loss, applied to be relieved of the contract. Mr Travers stated at the meeting that Mr Stafford had offered to release Messrs Brogden from their contract, but that Mr Vogel had refused to do so, and that the result to the firm would be a probable loss of L 60,000, No wonder that it was so much to be desired that Mr Stafford should be retained in office. Upon this matter Mr Travers unwittingly proved that Mr Vogel prefers the interests of the Colony to those of the contractor.