"E. A. SMITH."

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 768, 17 March 1910, Page 5

"E. A. SMITH."

SOME INTERESTING INTERVIEWS. fflfflfE MINISTER CONTRADICTED. , Our ...evening contemporary'' prints a paries , of interviews' which'. its .: London, correspondent has obtained:.with, respect, ±o tho firm of "E. A. Smith," which has fox some years had a monopoly of the looking, of' emigrants :to: New' Zealand. ' ffihis'.matter,:, itwill- be;recollected,., was the subject of much discussion in Janu<ary last. In an editorial on January 21 "JEhb ; Domxn'ton' asked for : information (concerning this';: firm'., of agents. In that article; lit : was mentioned- ' that iwhen applications for: assisted 1 passages io--New. Zealand were received and ap-. proved by the High Commissioner's' Offioe, the, emigrants- wero. sent along . a Corridor to the offices of ."E.. A. Smith," (who booted the . passages. and drew'the commission on them. In 1908 the Hon, (X. E. Macdonald, in the Legislative /Council,. asked for a return of sums paid ffor immigration,. including ."full..infor(mation as to the 1 , commission allowed '■ in jconnection with ; all-shipping .transactions with a firm known as "E. A. iSmith/" .The Attorney-General successifully i resisted the request for information,. and Mi - . Macdonald, 1 although saying ihe would: bring, the,matter up' a'gain, allowed: it'to drop. l On the day following the publication of thru Dominion's article, the Prime" Minister made. a ; long statement, which /was generally-;condemned, by the press as unsatisfactory. In the.course.of this statement ho.said that'"so. far as the Govern-' irient was concerned, there ivas\no L desire' to conceal anything.". He: also said: "The firm had nothing to do with . the' High Commissioner, and its offices were quite apart from. any por- ! . tion- of the building, occupied by the : ;. New ' Zealand . Government; I've ; never heard—until £ say ' the matter ' mentioned in the newspapers—of any ' . .supposed'.mystery, about the -firm. Personally, - I know; 'nothing of r the firm, or its'origin.,v . I, for one, ,' did not know, nor did any' other member of the Government know, that. Mr. Konnaway, junr., had boon recently the principal of the firm of ' E. A. Smith.'' ia immediate' result of the Prime Min-: ister'e.statement was. a,flood of letters ill the press of the whole country from re- ' pontly-arrived, immigrants.; These a were Unanimous in their assurances that they were passed along , a passage to 'T3. A. Smith."'.' Most. of them believed "Mr. Smith" to be an official in the High Commissioner's Department. One.' of them fluoted -from /correspondence. When he' .■wrote to the. High. Commissioner, 1 he received no reply from him, but he would reoeive a letter from "E. A.' Smith," beginning"l ain in receipt of your letter to the' High Commissioner, etc;" The-.first interview 1 obtained by the "Evening - Post's" correspondent • was iwith . Mr. \V. P. Reevesj . who made,-in-ter alia,: the following'statements:— "The: suggestion tliat ; young Mr. KenBiaway's connection. with the office was/ J n J1 aD yv va y a . matter, of secrecy is ludicrous. .He was seen;there by hundreds; m # f act, .thousands of people in contraction with, our shipping business, and it jnust have beei» -known to hundreds. Une London correspondents of the new - out there must have known it perfectly welL' No sort, of' attempt was to keep it secret. 'In a letter ■which l. wrote to the Government some "time in.1906 on the subject of the shipping Business, : l went out of :my way to. explain to them what Mr. Kennaway was <ioing; and his connection with the office. The position was then distinctly stated, ui was explained that ho was doing our shipping business; and that ho had by gradual - process .become •E. A. Smith There was.no suspicion of'secrecy about the, position. If a Minister came Homo tfo always made a point of sending Mr. m° m . eo - •m* connection *witn the office has always been perfectly, -well known. .I am sure that it is'on refcord .in the. Government Department and has been for some time, tbat youn*" Kewiaway was doing the work, and that i had becomo, m fact, tho firm of E A. Smith/' , - Mr. JE. M. Kennaway bore, out Mr. statement that the Government Tras-fully cognisant of the position. is .a letter in the Department," le add, "advising the Government of the jerastence of the arrangement. About three ;or four years ago another ' letter yaa sent out explaining the position." _Sir Walter Kennaway also said that the ■Government quite understood the position all through, and, so far as he was aware, never, expressed any disapproval. The' following passage from the interview •|with Sir Walter Kennaway is interesting ■Sot its proof of the monopoly enjoyed by A. Smith":— "Every application for an assisted pasisage was considered bv >the High Comlinissioner or tho Agent-General, and, if approved, all the arrangements' for the passages were made through E. A,' Smith. Of course, E. A. Smith had power- to ■ deal with other , emigrants as-well. Ho could do any business he liked- besides. He was. merely a commission agent." "But did not tho other agents comS lain of all the work going throuch.E. .. Smith?" '. " ' "They had just as much right to send in applications for ■ assisted passages as anybody else, but when once the applications were approved, tho arrangements for passages were made through. E. A. •Smith." .