NEW ZEALAND'S NAVAL STATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2362, 1 June 1899, Page 45

NEW ZEALAND'S NAVAL STATION.

COMPLETE SUCCESS OF MB

BRIGHAM.

(From Ouk Own Correspondent*

LONDON, April 14.

It is with sincere gratification that I am at last able to announce that Mr Brigham, tha secretary of the Auckland Harbour Board, has been completely sucessful in his efforts to induce the Imperial authorities to come to a definite and favourable arrangement with regard to the Calliope Dock and the proposed naval repairing station at Auckland.

As I have mentioned before, Mr Brigham has had to adopt for months past those tactics of patient perseverance which form the most wearisome task that can be imposed upon anyone. It must have made Mr Brigham'E position all the more irksome to be aware, as he was, that the long delay in arriving at any decision and the consequent protraction of his stay in England was creating much surprise in Auckland, and among his official chiefs as well as generally. But there was no alternative to submission to the inevitable, save the impossible one of abandoning the whole thing. So Mr Brigham worked and waited, persistently plodding long in his efforts to stimxilate those vast skeins of red tape, the Admiralty and the Treasury, into something like activity. Acting upon President's Lincoln's historic rule, he "kept pegging away," and now he has the gratification of achieving full success.

For a long time the Treasury refused to entertain the proposal, even after it was recommended by the Admiralty. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach did not then quite know where he would find the means of carrying out tha enormous additional expenditure, naval and otherwise, arranged for the current financial year, and any now and extra outlay was at first utterly abhorrent. However, by degrees it was made plain that this particular expenditure would be in the long vun profitable, and would materially strengthen tho naval preparations, which are still proceeding on a vast scale. And so the Treasury at length gave way.

But next came a long dispute as to the terms. The Treasury wanted to limit -the Imperial contribution to a subsidy at the rate of 2Jj per cent, on the cost of the proposed works. But Mr Brigham contended that this would not be either equitable or practicable, and stuck out for a 4 per cent, basis. So after a long controversy, in which Mr Austen Chamberlain warmly backed up Mr Brigham's efforts, the Treasury agreed to the • proposed terms. The matter had to be handled very cautiously and with the utmost discretion and tact, for Mr Brigham was often warned that unless the affair were dealt with most carefully and without any display of impatience, it would assuredly be dropped altogether. Thus he had to "bide his time" while leaving no stone unturned. , The outcome is that the Imperial Government will pay a subsidy of £2950 per annum, for 30 years. This is calculated to provide C per cent, upon the estimated cost, and £576 per annum ior sinking fund on the principal, sum of £32,250. which will thus be paid off in the course of 30 years. Mr Brigham will invite tenders immeclia tely for the requisite machinery and equipmpnt, so that if possible ho may get everything arranged before he leaves London on his return fco New Zealand toward the end of the r>.urr«n4 month. He may .be deservedly complimented on the skill and judgment with which he has conducted the difficult negotiations, and may b<3 congratulated on their successful result. I do not doubt that his work wip be cordially appreciated in New Zealand, but the services rendered by Mr J. H. Witheford in first setting the ball rolling ought by no means to he forgotten.