The Evening Post. SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1874.

Evening Post, Volume X, Issue 51, 18 April 1874, Page 2

The Evening Post. SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1874.

Mr John Barnes, a -well-known popular member* of the City Council of Dunedio, made a most palpable hit at Mr Holloway's recent meeting in that city* What took < place is reported as follows ; — Mr Barnes wished to know if Mr Holloway was aware that the Government had threatened to summon all immigrants who had not paid the* arrears of their ;pa«Bage-' ; pa«8age-' money. Mr Holloway j Yes, 4 , Mr Jiarnea asked if these men wko dbnld not pay their passage money should, be compelled to assist others to come here Satis,— (Load applause.) Would it be irfor the Qorernmeot to strike off all defaulters? ' Me Holloway t It woold. This is the first public notice which wt have' seen taken, of what is really a most important subject; A reference to the letter of our London correspondent will show that in a recent English election capital was attempted to he made out of Messrs Brogden and Sons having sued certain, immigrants for the recovery of their, promissory notes, and there is no doubt that any attempt on the part of the Government to rigidly enforce payment would prove obnoxious to the people of the.^ Colony and - prejudicial to its immigration prospects at home. There must be a very large sum of' money indeed due to the Government by immigrants it lias im-

ported, and judging from the experience of the Provincial Governments when they managed immigration, and from that that of Messrs Brogden and Sons, it is, pretty clear that most s>f this money is irrecoverable. In a Parliamentary paper, the one which the Government ineffectually attempted to suppress last Session, we find that Messrs Brogden had spent no less than £39,874 on immigration, the payment being secured by promissory notes. Against this they had only recovered .£lOO7. Their attempts to recover payment by legal process were most uoforfcunate. They had sued for £1501, at an expense for law ,costs of £327, and had only recovered ,£124 in all. It is, under even the most favorable circumstances, a most difficult thing to recover payment of advances made to immigrants, but the circumstances at present existing are exceptionably unfavorable. It is all very well to take up high moral ground, and maintain that as the immigrants incurred the obligation with their eyes open they should be made to pay the money to the uttermost farthing. As an. abstract proposition this might be assented to, but looking at the whole matter from another point of view, its "justice may well be doubted. The Government for a considerable time brought out immigrants at from £7 to £10 per head, promissory notes being given for the , amount. The immigrants were sought for and urged to come, and they accepted the terms, believing them to be fair and reasonable. It may be said that they goo what they bargained for, and that they bettered their position by coming, but they would not be human beings if tney did not feel a sense of injustice rankling in their breasts when /they find hundreds of competitors for employment landed fti the Colony perfectly free fromall debt. Take the case of two men, one married, with a family, and who has promissory notes to the extent of perhaps £70 to £80 hanging over his head /'the other, . a single man, owing nothing, and working at the same " work, and receiving the same wages. The , first-named man would certainly feel himself unjustly treated if pressed for payment of his promissory notes. He would feel this the more if sufficiently reflective to view the case in the light Mr Barnesput it, that he was being pressed for payment and taxed in order to pay the passage of his fellow workman. We hold that the adoption of a system of free passages to immigrants necessarily involved its retrospective application in respect to the remission of all outstanding liabilities bv< immigrants on account of passage money. It- may certainly be argued thsit it would be unfair to > those who have paid their promissory notes, that those* who have not done so should be forgiven the debt, and there is some jtruth in the' objection, but in such a matter it is almost impossible to avoid some real or apparent injustice, and all that can be done is to reduce the injustice to a minimum. This would have been accomplished' bad the Government cancelled all promissory notes outstanding at the titne that free passages were authorised. A perusal of the Parliamentary paper already referred to (the. report of the Select Committee on Messrs Brogdens' petition, 'and the evidence taken), will show clearly how, keen the sense of injustice is amongst immigrants at finding themselves placed at a disadvantage compared to others. It is evident that Messrs Brogden suffered loss directly and indirectly through the fact that while, under arrangement with' the Government, their immigrants had to pay £15 for passage money, the Government -itself was sending people out in the very same ships at £10 . ;a-head. If , the Messrs Brogden found it impossible, chiefly in. consequence of this, to enforce payment of their promissory notes, they must find it doubly so now that free immigration is in vogue, and the must also feel the difficulty, Messrs Brogden gave their own promissory notes to the extent of £1 8,400 to the Government for the passage money of their people, but whon they found the position in which they were placed by the causes referred to, they offered to endorse to the the whole of the promissory notes given to them, for the Government to collect, the proceeds io be devoted pro rata to the reduction of the amount charged for passage money, and to the amount advanced by the firm for the immigrants' outfits. Of course Messrs Brogden's promissory riotesfor£l 8,400 were then to be cancelled. This offer was, we think, a perfectly fair one, as it would have placed the Government in exactly the same position towards Messrs Brogden's immigrants as towards their own. It was, however, declined, and a heavy lo*s was thus forced on the firm, although the Coipny has undoubtedly derived benefit from the expenditure of their money for immigration. We quite agree with Mr Barnes and Mr Holloway that under existing circumstances, the least unfair course open to the Government in the matter is to cancel all outstanding promissory notes due by Government immigrants, and to arrange with Messrs Brogden to relieve their immigrant? of liability in. like manner, la the case of Bsncke v. Vogel, commenced in the Supreme Court toi* morning, considerable difficulty was experienced In

empanelling a special jury without including some of thoee who already had served four days. Several jurors called were absent, not having been served personally. In one case, a remarkable conflict of sworn evidence arose. Mr E. S, Hunt, who did not answer at first, attended subsequently, and declared on oath that he had not received the summons, while the bailiff swore with equal confidence that he gave it to him personally a week ago in Hunter-street, bat he had mislaid the memorandum of service. Mr Hunt rejoined that the only summons served on him there was one for the grand jary some months back. His Honor remarked on the extreme difficulty of deciding amid such singular discrepancy. He must assume that each believed himself to be speaking the truth, and that there was some error of memory. As the officer had failed to prodace hia memorandum of service, he should hold that it was more probable that he had confused the names in hi* memory than that Mr Hunt should hare been mistaken as to his receiving the summons or not, Mr Hunt, therefore, was excused, Mr 0, Hartmann also claimed exemption as being no longer a resident in the district. Ib appeared that the name remaining on the jury list, the sumnrma was left at Mr Hartmann's former residence, and would simply have lapsed had he not come over on subpoena as a witness in the previous case, when he was duly pounced upon as a special juryman as well. His Honor said clearly Mr Hartmann's " last plade of residence" now was Nelson, and he would be excused. The jury then was filled up all but one, which marie it nece3sary to take one of those engaged in the last case. All begged to be let off, and the point at length was decided by a private ballot among the gentlemen themselves, when the lot fell on Mr vValter Turnbull, who accordingly took his place on the jury — of which he was at once chosen foreman. These preliminary difficulties occupied over half an hour. The following is an approximate list of the immigrants expected to arrive by the ship Wennington, now due : — Married couples without children- 3 laborers, 1 bricklayer, 1 painter, 1 tinsmith, 4 farm laborers. Married couples with children — 13 laborers, 10 farm laborers, 2 painters, 2 shepherds, 1 blacksmith, 1 ropemaker, 1 gardener, 1 tailor, 1 butcher, 1 mason, 1 farrier, 6 carpenters, 1 gasfitter, 1 wheelwright. Single men — 13 laborers, 2 painters, 1 baker, 3, carpenters, 2 hammermen, 1 fitter, 2 bootmakers, 1 tailor, 1 blacksmith, 16 farm laborers, I sail maker, 1 shipwright, 2 masons, 1 slater, 1 gardener. Single women — 11 general servants, 1 housemaid, 1 housekeeper, 1 cook, 3 young girls, " Observer" has neglected to forward his real name. We can make no exception to the rale which requires all correspondents to furnish us With their names. That enterprising firm, Messrs A. and T. Barb, of Dunedin, are about to establish a manufactory of lead piping and composition gas tubing. This will be a new industry in this colony. Full drawings of the plant have already been received from home. The jarrah timber required for the breastwork of the new reclamation at Thorndon is not .likely, we believe, to arrive here before July. It is now being cut in Western Australia. Messrs Saunders and O'Malley cannot, of course, begin their contract until this timber arrives, and it Will, therefore, probably be August before the work of reclamation is actually commenced. The Kennedys had a good house again last night, and the entertainment was as successful as usual. To-night the programme is specially attractive. We may again remind our readers *fchat the new theatrical company open at the Theatre Royal to-nigh^ in the ever popular East Lynne. The old Club tap has disappeared, and its place is now occupied by a very handsome new hotel, which will shortly be opened by Mr Frank Broughton, the well known and popular host of the old tap. The new building has been erected from the plans of Mr Tringhaai, and although the frontage is ndt extensive, the external appearance is exceedingly good, and is a great improvement to that part of Lambton Quay. Internally the hotel is most conveniently arranged in every way, and it is being fitted up in the very best style throughout. The accommodation which this house will afford will be most useful during the coming session, and it is pleasant .to see good buildings replacing such old dilapidated erections as the late tap. .Referring to our advertising columns it will be seen that the Primitive Methodists of Sydney-street intend holding their Sabbath School anniversary services tomorrow. In the morning at 11, and evening at half -past six, the Bey R. Ward will preach on behalf of the school, A service in the afternoon, consisting of addresses by the teachers, and recitations and singing by the children will be held. On Monday the annual tea meeting will take plac, and a public meeting in the evening, to be addressed by the teachers of the school and other gentlemen, the service of gong being performed by the children. We are requested to call attention to the auction sale of Mr Duncan's on Monday. The sale of surplus stores, ex Woodlark, frdm London, will take place at 2 o'clock precisely ; but before that hour, on tbe same day, at I£ o'clock, he will sell, without any reserve, two cabs, horses and harness, and sundries, as per advertisement. The amount of Customs revenue collected at the port of Wellington for the week ending to-day was £1799 17s lid. Tbe farewell concert given last night in the Theatre Royal by the Claus-Rekel company was most successful in every sense. There was a capital house, and the programme was both excellent in material '

and admirably rendered. Mdlle Claua as usual played superbly in everything she had to do, while M. Kekel, Mdlle Rekel, and Signor Cecchi, were as efficient as ever in their respective parts. We regretted the omission of the violoncello part in the Haydn sonata, especially as there was present a competent violoncellist (Mr Thomas), who acquitted himself most creditably later in the Reissiger trio. We also regretted that M. Rekel did not exhibit his powers a« a pianist in a solo by onw of the classical masters instead of playing the modern fantasias in which the compofer simply introduces the executive difficulties most easily overcome by himself. Four amateurs sang some Orpheus glees capitally, winning a cordial encore. The audience received Mdlle Clans' efforts with the usual enthusiasm, and M. Rekel, Mdlle Rekel, and Signor Cecchi came in for a liberal share of the popular appreciation. We are sorry to part with this talented company, and vish them all possible success in their future career. A very difficult and delicate operation was skilfully performed last month by Dr Diver, consisting in the removal of a double cataract. It was achieved with entire success, and there is every probability that the patient will obtain the complete restoration o f sight. Dr Hector returned, on Friday last, from the East Coast district, between Poverty Bay and Hick's Bay, where he has during the last five weeks been investigating the geology of the country, especially as regards the mode of occurrence of the petroleum or rock oil which occurs there. We learn from notices of his explorations that have appeared in the Poverty Bay Herald that he has examined the coast line and interior as far as the base of Hikurangi. In our next issue we shall notice the result I of his explorations.