NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURAL COMPANY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5734, 15 August 1879, Page 7

NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURAL COMPANY.

Papers which have recently been laid before Parliament show that although the actu/sVof the Agent-General, Sir Julius Vogel, in making himself one of the principals in launching the New Zealand Agricultural Company (Limited) in England has not secured the sanction of the Premier, his (Sir Julius’) connection with that enterprise has not yet actually ceased. In February last we find that the Agent-General wrote to the Hon. Minister for Immigration announcing that he had joined the Board of Directors of the new company, and expressing a hope that the Minister would see no objection to his action in that respect. In April the Premier, acting, wo presume, for his colleague, telegraphs as follows: 22nd April, 1879. To Vogel, London, — Agent-General appointed additional agent Inscribed stock. Instructions by next mail. Government cannot approve connection Agricultural Company. Request you arrange early retirement therefrom. (Signed) G. Grey. On the 9th May Sir Julius Vogel asked and obtained a gracious permission to delay his reply to this telegram until the next Suez or San Francisco mail; that letter has no doubt been received, but it has not yet been laid before Parliament. Writing in February last, we made a comparison of the treatment received respectively at the hands of the present Government by Mr. Broomhall and by Mr. Larnach, each of whom having land to sell desired “to throw it into a “company,” for the philanthropic purpose of encouraging settlement and, as Mr. Macandrew would say, promoting the growth of “cereals.” Mr. Broomhall’s scheme was skilfully frustrated by Sir George Grey, partly no doubt because the promoter represented men of capital who desired to invest money in New Zealand, but also because, as he told his constituents at the Thames, the Aroha Block belonged to them, and he wanted to keep the land for them and for their children for all time. “At the small “ charge of £3500,” he said, “ the claim “ made was surrendered and the land “ secured for yourselves. (Cheers.)” Mr. Larnach’s scheme, on the contrary, was not only not attempted to be frustrated by the Premier, but it appears to have received the cordial concurrence of Ministers, and all the aid and advantage which the official position of the AgentGeneral of the colony could give it. The action of Sir Julius Vogel and Mr. Larnach in the matter would necessarily, as we said, give the “undisclosed “guarantee” of their official status and position for the soundness and bona fides of the enterprise with which they publicly identified themselves. To this may be fairly ascribed, we think, the success, such as it is, of that benevolent enterprise. But Sir Julius Vogel has been called upon by Sir George Grey either to resign his directorship of the New Zealand Agricultural Company (Limited), or his office of Agent-General for the colony ; and herein we see another example of capriciousness and want of any guiding principle in the conduct of this Government.

In the account of the proceeding of the shareholders of the new company at their first statutory meeting in May last, the President, Sir Julius Vogel, is reported to have said, —

“I need scarcely tell you we shall not sell any land without a very large profit. This will be sufficiently apparent to those who are acquainted with what is termed in the colonies ‘ cutting up.’ Many and vast have been the fortunes made in the colonies by ‘ cutting up.’ The man with small means tries it with small pieces of land, the man of large means with large estates : in each case the profits are enormous. ‘ Cutting up’ means acquiring land wholesale and selling it retail ; it is, in fact, dealing in land instead of in goods.” "What is in colonial parlance called “land “ sharking” is thus avowed as the object of the new association —a deliberate sacking of the ‘‘unearned increment,” and the withdrawing of it altogether from Sir George Grey’s land-tax gatherers ! Not very long ago we had in this city a projected enterprise of a not very dissimilar character. Readers of the "Wellington newspapers must have seen, in October last, an alluring advertisement of a jointstock company, from the published prospectus of which we make the following extract:—

The company is formed for two objects— First and chiefly, for lending money at current rates of interest upon security of landed property situated within the colony of New Zealand ; and second, for acquiring, when deemed advisable, landed property situated in or near cities or towns, or centres of population in the colony of New Zealand, and thereafter selling it again in whole or in lots, as may suit purchasers.

The title of this Company was the New Zealand Land and Loan Company (Limited), and amongst the names of the provisional directors we note the following

Hon. William Hunter Reynolds, M.L.C., New Zealand.

Hon. John Martin, M.L.C., New Zealand. Hon. John Ballance, Colonial Treasurer, New Zealand.

Hon. Robert Stout, Attorney-General, New Zealand.

c 1 Cutting up ” was thus trfe common purpose of both associations ; they differed in comparative unsuccessfulness ; bulTin other respects it may be said that ‘VOjEsab and Pompey were very much “alike —’specially Pompey.” If it were right for Ministers of the Crown in New Zealand themselves to embark in the “cutting up” business in the colony, it could hardly be held to be wrong for Sir Julius Yooel and Mr, Labnach to attempt a modest stroke of busings on their own account in the same line in England. Following, as he did, the lead of the Honorable Mr. Ballance and the Honorable Mr. Stout, the Agent-General. might fairly expect to receive the countenance and support of both these honorable gentlemen as representing the Government, and indeed it was publicly said that that countenance and support had been actually officially accorded to him. However, the Honorable Colonial Secretary has assured the Legislative Council that, excepting private and friendly Offers of shares —not “paidup,”of course,—which were declined with thanks, and the official telegram about the Waimate railway, there has been no other correspondence with Ministers than that already published, rumor, as usual, must have been wrong. But, and this is our point, as showing the capriciousness and want of principle in administrationof which we complain, Sir Geobge Geey now requires Sir Julius Yooel to vacate his seat at the Board of Directors of the New Zealand Agricultural Company (Limited), or to resign his office as Agent-General, whilst it does not appear that he offered even so much as a gentle protest against the action of his Colonial Treasurer and his Attorney-General when they were attempting here to do that for which Sir Julius Yooel has nowbeencondemned. Both the Agent-General and Mr. Labnach have, we think, reason to complain of the faithlessness of their friends on this side. It is true that neither Mr. Stout nor Mr. Ballance are now members of the Ministry, but all the incidents which wo have noted happened before Mr. Stout’s voluntary retirement, and before the occurrence of that accident to Mr. Ballance’s “ collar” which rendered a separation from his beloved chief necessary for the repose of the happy official family. We have received by the last mail a letter in reference to this subject, which will be found elsewhere. We have not the pleasure of the writer’s acquaintance, but as he evidently takes a deep interest in New Zealand affairs, we give him the opportunity of stating his views without accepting any responsibility for them.

’ TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sir, —In re the cablegram sent to the colony on the 14th February, stating that £300,000 had been subscribed for the New Zealand Agricultural Company you made the following remarks :—“ Whether English capitalists will readily yield to the solicitations to send another million of money to New Zealand on the terms and conditions set forth in the prospectus remains to be seen.”

The Companies Act of 1862 makes the public filing of the register of shareholders within four months after registering the prospectus imperative. This was filed on the 2Cth May, when it was seen that the English capitalist so far from subscribing a million had not subscribed even the £300,000 the cablegram announced had been subscribed, and the senders of that cablegram ought to be discovered and dealt with.

I send yon a print of the Register,* from which you will see that on the day it was made up, the 16th May (being three months subsequent to the dateof the cablegram) that thepublio and promoters had subscribed for only ten thousand one hundred and fifty-eight shares.and that they had paid up only £43,026, and that even this small sum includes the Maxwells, Larnachs, and other personal friends. I enclose the last attractions issued to draw capital in the shape of speeches from “ the grand financiers ” and reports from Campbell and Reynolds, and wish you to note that the company will “ not sell any land without a very large profit.” This may be good for the shareholders, but it is certainly not for the colony ; and as I see in one of the papers that the Government has purchased 1,000,000 acres, the sooner it is thrown open the better, if population is to be drawn to the colony. lam sorry you are about to borrow again, especially so soon after the agitation which has been created by the acts of men who have been so identified with the Government ; but the credit of the colony stands well. You must not think that the personal influence of Vogel or Larnach, or both, is the value of a straw in raising loans. They have all the names and addresses of all the applicants for the last colonial loan, but from the 4th January to the 16th May they placed but 5862 shares with the public, amounting only to the paltry paid-up sum of £29,310, The credit of the colony adds to their status, and had the credit of the colony been pledged for their company, the capital would have been raised. Send over a special commissioner, and let him act in concert with the Crown agents and the Bank of England, and the loan will be raised, but you ought to resolve to borrow as little as possible. Four million, you say. I have not the last doubt of your having it, but you must begin to pull up. I enclose an article from the Scotsman of the 9th June, in which everything is said that I could consistently write respecting the colony; but the British capitalists are not fools, and as goon as they see public positions made to further private ends they begin to draw in, as Vogel has found in the New Zealand Agricultural Company. He hopes to get into Parliament for Falmouth, and he has told the electors that it is the best port in England for embarking to New Zealand, and that he intends to use his influence as Agent General to make the place a second Liverpool. I have been told that the three next ships with emigrants are to call at Falmouth, where Vogel has taken a house, and joined the Odd Fellows. Falmouth is a Liberal borough, strongly impregnated with Wesleyans, one of which is the present member, and I suppose the next move will be Vogel joining that faith.—Yours, &c., Alex. McCartney. Edinburgh, June 17th, 1879. [Note. —We reprint the summary from the paper referred to. — Ed. N. Z. Times.] Summary. —1850 shares held by Vogel, at £2O, £37,000 ; 1250 shares held by Larnach, £25,000 ; 250 shares held by Tancred, £5000; 200 shares held by Robertson, £4OOO ; 170 shares held by Driver, £3400; 170 shares held by Bell, £8400; 156 shares held by McOaughan, £3120; 100 shares held by Clarke, £2000; 100 shares held by Maxwell, £2OOO ; 50 shares held by Mayne, £IOOO. 4296 held by promoters, directors, and vendors, £86,920 ; 5862 held by the public £117,240. 10,158 total by promoters and public, £203,160 ; 17,509 shares issued to Joseph Clark, of the City of Melbourne, Victoria, on the 25th April, 1879, being vendors* shares, and called fully paid up shares, £350,000. 27,658 shares held by 208 shareholders, £553,160. Recapitulation. —sß62 shares held by the •public, on which £5 per share is called up, £29,310 ; 4296 shares held by the promoters and directors, on which £5 per share is called up, £21,480 ; 10,158 shares held and amount called up thereon, £50,790 ; 17,500 vendors’ shares, called paid-up shares, £350,000. (N;B. —The Register states that £7764 was unpaid of the amount called up.) Total called up, £50,790 ; unpaid on 16th May, £7764 ; total cash received to 16th May, £43,026.