The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1877.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5203, 24 November 1877, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1877.

The following remarkable statement aaris made by Sir George Grey in one of his earliest utterances as a Minister of the Crown: —“Then there is another amount which must bo brought under the notice of the House, and that is claims of which the House has never been informed, for extra Avorks and other contracts for railways, amounting to £171,237. It may be urged that the whole of that amount may not be found due and payable. I have only to say that the very first item contested, £BOO, Avas found to he wholly due, every penny of it, and I believe that nearly the whole£l7l,ooo will he required, or at any rate that there Avill be a heavy charge against the colony on this account.” Mr. Ormond, late Public Works Minister, naturally drew the attention of the House to this matter. Sir George Grey never hesitates to exaggerate any possible liability of the colony ; for the gratification of personal and party animosities outweigh with him any consideration for the public interests. But making every allowance for his eccentricities, it did appear strange that the Premier should take the earliest opportunity of giving a kind of semi-official recognition to large claims against the colony, which have been resisted by a previous Government, and Avhich two successive Public Works Ministers have disputed in their present shape. The late Government, acting Ave presume Avith deliberation and on proper advice, referred the Messrs. Brogden to the Courts of Law, and we hope that the ill-advised remarks of the Premier will not tend to place these claims on a new footing. It must have been very gratifying to the agents of the Messrs. Brogden to find that their claims were recognised in such a favorable and liberal spirit at so early a date in the history of the new Ministry, and they must congratulate themselves accordingly.