THE "EVENING POST" ON THE BROGDEN CONTRACTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 55, 10 February 1872, Page 6

THE "EVENING POST" ON THE BROGDEN CONTRACTS.

[From the Evening- Post, Feb: 5,1872.]

We have repeatedly denounced the Brogden contracts as flagrant jobbery. We have characterised the policy of the reigning Ministry as a gross abuse of power for party purposes. We have charged the Government with staking the solvency, nay, the very existence of the country, in a reckless gamble for place and power, and their concomitant worldly advantages. In this article we propose to adduce some striking facts in proof of our charges. The Brogden contracts have practically been a sealed book to the public. The papers laid before the Assembly, and the utterances of the Government have been so much gunpowder smoke to conceal the real movements. We will not tire the reader by recapitulating the points of the contracts. We will merely expose some recent transactions in connection with them, and leave the decision to the electors and taxpayers of New Zealand. It is no secret that at one stage of the Brogden-cum-Vogel negotiations there was great danger of an utter collapse. When Parliament met, Mr Brogden became aware that Mr Vogel had deceived him. He saw that Mr Vogel had counted too much upon the easy acquiesence of the Legislature in his impudent assumption of largo authorities and powers, the granting of which the Assembly had never contemplated. Mr Brogden and Mr Vogel had arranged a scheme to their mutual satisfaction. Mr Brogden was to become a large immigration agent, and to receive extensive blocks of land. While thousands of skilled workmen, inured to the climate of the country, were unemployed, thousands of navvies were to have been imported from England ; while the country possessed within itself eplendid materials for railway purposes, colonial industry was to have been paralysed, and manufactured articles were to have been imported for the contractor's benefit. The voice of the country protested against this transparent jobbery. The scheme was denounced from end to end of New Zealand. It was necessary, therefore, to modify it. Mr Brogden made new proposals to Mr Vogel—proposal? that have never been published—proposals as to which the Government have been prudently reticent. Messrs Brogden offered to forego contract No 1, to abandon the immigration scheme, to surrender all claim to allotment of lands, to construct railways and public works to the extent of £4,000,000, spread over a period of not less than ten years, to utilise to the utmost the efficient staff of the Public Works department, and to establish factories in the country for the utilization of its resources into plant, rolling stock, &c, on coadition that the Government would guarantee monthly progress payments at the rate of £9O per cent on the certified value of the work done, the balance, with 10 per cent profit added, to be paid on the satisfactory completion of the works. The advantages of such a plan must be obvious to any business man. But they did not recommend themselves to Mr Vogel. He was playing a desperate game. The continuance in office of the Ministry of which he was the keystone depended entirely upon the early fulfilment of lavish promises of patronage. It was, therefore, necessary that the power of making appointments in connection with the public works, as well as the expenditure of the money, should be retained by the Government. Mr Brogden, as a prudent man of business, might disapprove of the appointment of several zealous Government supporters to the posts of Ministers of Public Works, with all the useless expensive paraphernalia of offices in widely distant parts of the colony, clerks, and liberal travelling allowances. We shall see how the interests of the colony were sacrificed to Ministerial selfishness and unscrupulous abuse of power. Mr Vogel could not conveniently accept the proposals of Messrs Brogden, but he could propose others, which, if less advantageous to the country, would be more advantageous to the Ministry, and more profitable to that firm. Mr Brogden was relieved of all trouble or responsibility. The Government undertook to find the whole of the capital and the labor, to appoint the men, and to spend the money. Mr Brogden was to receive for little more than the mero use of his name, a clear profit of 10 per cent on all outlay. No sooner was this mutually satisfactory arrangement concluded, than Mr Brogden's sen Ices were called into requisition. He was requested to draw up a list of railway plant, &c, immediately required. Mrßrogden's business smartness enabled him in a few minutes to fill up a page and a-half of foolscap, comprising £38,0C0 worth of plant and stock. In that short time Mr Brogden had netted a clean £33C ? —lO per cent on the outlay included in the list—and a cheque for that amount was immediately paid to him. But the comirission business does not stop here. .Another fortunate person is permitted to have a share of the pickings. The Messrs Brogden are in no way responsible for the supply of the requisite plant and stock, nor for their good quality. They are to be supplied under tenders in England, subject to the approval

of an engineer appointed by the Government, and receiving remuneration at the rate of one per cent on the outlay. Thus 11 per cent will be spent for the mere list of plant and Btock, and for inspection. If railways and public works be constructed to the extent of £4,000,060, Messrs Brogden -will receive a cool £400,000 for filling up a few sheets of foolscap, while the Government Engineer will nett many thousand pounds for little more than signing a few certificates.