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Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1304, 3 October 1872, Page 2

SHARP PRACTICE BY SHIPOWNERB.

Mr Ormond during the late debate said — The Agent-General had been blamed for breaking down the Glasgow lino of ships trading to Otago, and he Bhould not have placed before the House the whole subject in detail but for the charges made in the House against this management of the arrangements. The latest correspondence from the Agent-General stated that he found in inviting tenders for the carriage of passengers to the Colony that three tenders were sent in, one from Shaw, Savill and Co, and one from Gibba, and Co. Inquiry elicited the fact that these tenders were '* cooked," and that it- had been arranged that Messrs Henderson and Co. were to navo the whole of tho Scotch emigration in their hands, and Shaw, Savill and Co. the whole of the English passengers, they undertaking to pay to Messrs Gibbs, Bright and Co. a commission on every transaction that took place. He rejected the whole of these tenders, and then Messrs Gibbs, Bright and Co. complained that they had been " sold." When these firms found themselves freed from the compact, Gibbs. Bright and Co. sent an agent, Mr Slomdn, to the Agent-General to make terms for the carriage «f the emigrants, and as soon- as Shaw, Savill and Co. found this out they despttched another agent, who met Mr Sloman, and offered him an amount to withdraw, which Mr Sloman himself stated was more than ho could have reasonably expected to make out of tho contract, which he had arranged for with the Agent-General. Mr Sloroan declined to accept such an offer, stating that although he had not signed the contract, he was not going back from bis word, whereupon Shaw, Savill's, agent " sloped." The result of this determination on tho part of the Agent-General was that the carriage of emigrants had been reduced to Ll3. llie same price had been offered to Messrs Henderson and Co, but they refused to accept it.