MR COLEMAN PHILLIPS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 239, 29 September 1876, Page 4

MR COLEMAN PHILLIPS.

The following are extracts from a letter addressed by Sir Julius Vogel to the IV. Z. Times re Mr Phillips' claim for compensation:*-— Early in 1872, I met Mr Wood, then one of the members of the Fijian Government, in Sydney, and he agreed to givo me a concessiou for establishing a bank or branch of a bauk at Fiji. I wrote to friends at home suggesting the establishment of a large bank and trading company, to take in the Pacific Islands generally. I did not receive an encouraging reply, and gave up the matter, or at any rate ceased to deal with it. Meanwhile, considerable political interest centred in the Pacific Islands questions, and officially I had to deal with their political aspect. About August, 1873, Mr Phillips sent me a copy of his scheme. It revived in my mind the commercial idea, and I at once resolved to give Mr Phillips all the advantage I could for it. I sent it to the Governor, and subsequently wrote to Mr Phillips to come to Wellington. •»#•»# When I reached Auckland, I found that no one was disposed to act with Mr Phillips, and I told him so. I told him he was quite at liberty to proceed on his own course and go to Londou; but if he did nothing, and the company I proposed proceeded, I would endeavor to get him £2000 from it. I may observe that he never intended leaving for London before March, and this was February, so that he was quite Bt liberty to pursue his original intention, or to wait to see the issue of the company the Government proposed. Though for convenience sake I use the first person singular in tbis letter, the Government were cognisant of and approved all my action in the matter. Wben I found that Mr Phillips' connection with the Government guaranteed company would injure it, I mude him the intimation 1 have described. His reply was a very indiscreet letter, since Which I have been guarded in my communiaations with him. All that I heard io Auckland convinced me I had been guiity of the mistake of making too much of him. I proceeded whilst in Auckland to arrange the terms of a guaranteed company. Several of the wealthiest men in different parts of New Zealand signified their intention to take an interest in it, and a bill was prepared to enable the Government to enter into the proposed arrangement. The Bill was read a first time, and would probably have heen further proceeded with but lor the introduction of the resolutions relating to the abolition of provinces. The difference in opinion between Mr Phillips and myself is, that he alleges that I unconuitionally guaranteed to give him a compensation of £2000, whilst 1 say that all I promised him was to try to obtain £2000 for him from the company, if it proceeded. Beyond his own statement, there is absolutely no evidence in favor of his version. Even hie letter, to which I have referred, does not bear out the statemement that I hah undertrken unconditionally to give him compensalion. In support of my recollection, there is corroborative circumstantial evidence to be obtained from Mr Justice Gillies and the hon Mr Whitaker, as to my views coaoermng Mr Phillips during the time I was arranging the conditions of the company. There is further this circumstantial evidence, that though Mr Pmiiips alleges I promised him the compensation in February, 1574, he never applied to me for it, nor did I know he thought he had any claim to it till about April in the present yej>r He went home to England meanwhile* I have once or twice seen him person" ally; he has besieged me with letters; but until just before the Assembly, f had no kuowledge of his intended claim. There is further to b e aa id respecting the conflicting versions, that there is absolutely nothing which could have warranted my giviag au unconditional promise of compensation. My fault was undoubtedly making too much of Mr Philips. I was prepared to recognise that if the thug weut 00| i owed it to his -uggestion. But if the thing did not go on, for what was he to be compensated, except for his expenses to aad from Wellington, which I slnuld always have recommended had he applied for them. Supposing the thing were to come over again, what I should do would be simply to acknowledge with thanks the schema sent to me. It would then be quite competent for me to consider it officially. It waß altogether misjudged to have given Mr Philips the consideration I did. Supposing I had even adopted his plau iu iis entirety, u mere allusion wonld have been as much as is usual. But the plau proposed by me and that of Mr Phillips differed iu moat essential points. A leading feature in bis Was a traffic iu human labor, which I ueed not aay I did not adopt. His plan might or might not have been worked irom New Zealand; whilst the essential feature of mine was. that it, was to be worked from New Z. aland and for the benefit, of the colony, and not wiih a view solely to proQt. To meet this, I proposed a colonial guarantee. This waa tho distinctive feature which made the scheme a New Z.aland one, which made it different to other projects of tha kind, and which distinguished it from ordinary enterprises. Another distinctive feature of

the Government proposals was that there was a condition that steamers should be run constantly between the islands and New Zealand. It was an exaggerated sympathy for Mr Phillips that made me promise him that if the thin? went on I would try to get him compensation. I did so on thia broad ground, that if it had gone on I was willing to agree that but for hia sending ma bis plan I would not have brought forward my plans. But in the absence of any results, for what was he to be compensated ? His plan, short of his labor traffic, was much more like mine of the previous year, than like the „one I made public and intended proceeding with. Let me ask those who are inclined to blame me, what fault I have committed, excepting a too generous desire to serve this ungrateful young man. When I found that he was quite unfitted to take any share in the company, waa I to abandon a great undertaking for the benefit of the colony merely because it owed part of its its inception to Mr Phillips ? Are proposals brought down by Governments usually original ? I am under the impression that it is rather a disadvantage than otherwise to a Government to propose a perfectly original scheme, inasmuch as the demand for Government action should usually proceed from outside. As a rule, Governments make do recognition of authorship. It is right for Government to give attention to all suggestions made to it. Let us take examples. It is notorious that the purchase of the Sues Canal shares was suggested to the English Government by a well-known and very able man, but I believe no recognition of the service was made either in print or in debate, far ieBB auy compensation proposed. Let us take the case of the Polynesian scheme. I believe had it been carried out as proposed by the Government, it would have been of great service to the colony and to Great Britain, though I admit that the liberal expenditure of the Imperial Government has since made it to a certain extent unnecessary. But supposing an award bad to be made for the origination of the scheme, to whom would it be due ? Although politically I have not worked with Sir George Grey, I willingly admit that many years since he had a great conception of a Polynesian confederation; and if his urgent and anxious advice had been followed, New Caledonia would have been a Britisb, instead of a foreign possession. As far as I am aware, Sir George Grey may be looked on as the originator of aoy plan of extended Polynesian government. Between his conceptions and the plan I brought down, innumerable schemes have been thought out, some have been tried, some have died natural deaths. * * * * Mr Phillips evidently does not understand the difference between the mere suggestion of idea, or plans, and the responsibility which a Government undertakes in proposing them. I em popularly regarded as the author of many proposals which have been adopted in New Zealand. If by authorship ia meant original conception, instead of working out the details, then I do not know an instance in which I could make the claim; indeed, he would be a bold man who claimed to have been the first thioker upon any subject. Take, for instance, the Immigration and Public Works policy, of which I am termed the author. Nothing is more certain than that its conception passed through many minds. Mr Macandrew and .v)r Moorhouse thought of it before I arrived in New Zealand, and in one shape or another proposed it. Mr Stafford often had it in his mind, and spoke of it. Mr Bunny, on one occasion, at least, forshadowed it. Mr Fitzherbert actually entered into negotiations in the same direction, and had a Bill prepared to give them effect. When I came down with the policy on the responsibility of the Government, it was so much aid to me that others had thought in the same direction. To lake an opposite case, Mr Fitzherbert effected tbe conversion of the loans. He would, I am sure, willingly admit that for a considerable ticm I had advocated a measure of tbe kind ; but it would be as absurd for me to claim the credit of Mr Fuzlierbert's work as it would be for him to claim credit for mine. I am again largely identified with the Californian service. But I did not conceive it : Mr Crosbie Ward did. When Mr Stafford and Mr Macandrew proposed it iu the House, I rather opposed it, and they carried it against me. There are two undertakings of which \ I am considered the author, and which are likely to be vastly beneficial to the country. I allude to the Government system of life insurance and public trusteeship. But Ido not claim to be the conceiver of these things. Dozens of men probably thought over and suggested a Government system of life insurance ; and the public trusteeship was suggested to me by Mr Stevens, uow member for Christchurch, and Mr FitzGerald. Mr Phillips is a man of many ideas, as the letters he haa written to me show— to tho cost of much valuable time in their perusal. It would be odd il some of his ideas were not, good. Between conceiviug ideas aud working them out, determining what to accept and what to discard, aud assuming responsibly for all, there is a wide gulf. An Omnibus Co~i^_y~^l^g formed in Dunedin. At the first preliminary meeting £1000 was subscribed