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No. 39. The Hon. J. Vogel to the Agent-General. (No. 41.) Sic, — General Government Offices, Auckland, 16th February, 1874. I have telegraphic advices of the arrival of the s.s. " Mongol " at Port Chalmers, with passengers for four different ports. I refrain, until I shall have received further information, from saying anything as to the condition in which it is alleged the passengers were allowed to embark at and depart from Plymouth. But I have to observe that in my telegram forwarded from Wellington on the 11th October last, I instructed you, " endeavour charter two fine fast steamers, leave early December, one Canterbury, one Otago," and that you have not only not complied with that instruction, but have not taken any notice of it in your letters. I thought that the " Mongol " was intended to be one of the two steamships, but you have divided her passengers between four ports, and there is no indication whatever that you have even attempted to comply with my instructions as to a second steamer. It is exceedingly annoying, after instructions have, at great expense, been sent by cable, to find that they are wholly disregarded when they reach you. I have further to complain most strongly of the irregular receipt of information from you as to the sailing of vessels. You have been instructed to telegraph on the first day of each month, information as to the vessels that have sailed during the previous month. We have now in Auckland intelligence from Melbourne to the Bth February, with news from England to the sth; but I have not received from you any telegram as to the ships despatched by you during January. I must ask you to suppose yourself in my position, and to realize how disappointed you would be at the non-receipt of expected intelligence such as I am referring to. ************ I have, Ac, The Agent-General for New Zealand, London. Julius Vogel. Note.—The remainder of this letter refers to intelligence respecting Loan operations.

No. 40. The Hon. J. Vogel to the Agent-Geneeal. (No. 42.) Sic, — General Government Offices, Auckland, 16th February, 1874. I have the honor to enclose copy of a letter which I have received from the Superintendent of Otago. You will observe that His Honor states he is convinced that the Albion Company are not working into the hands of Messrs. Shaw, Savill and Co. You will have gathered from my letter of December 24th (No. 293, 1873) that I entertain a different opinion. Correspondence which I have seen satisfies me that those in this Colony who are connected with the Albion Company have no knowledge of any understanding between the Company and Messrs. Shaw, Saville, and Co., but does not satisfy me that there is not such an understanding. On the contrary, there has been for so litany years an understanding between Messrs. Shaw, Savill, and Co. and the Albion Company, and notwithstanding the new business of the Albion there seems to be so little like hostility between the two, that I am still under the impression that there is an intention ultimately to effect an amalgamation between the London business of the Albion Company and that of Messrs. Shaw, Savill, and Co. I may, however, be mistaken, and if you have made the inquiries which in my letter of the 24th December I asked you to make, some useful information on the subject may shortly be forthcoming. But, whether or not there is the intention to which I have referred, it cannot be' denied that the Albion Company have brought out immigrants from the Clyde in an eminently satisfactory manner, and all that the Superintendent of Otago urges in their behalf, with respect to their past conduct, is undeniable. Again, I cannot ignore the fact that the Company are constructing, and propose to put upon the line, some very fine vessels. In respect to that matter they are in much the same position as the New Zealand Company, who are not only chartering good vessels, but, as I have been given to understand, have arranged for the construction of others. You are aware that it is my desire you should not enter into lengthy-arrangements with any company or firm, but that, on the contrary, I have expressly instructed you not to make any engagements for shipping which cannot be resolved in three or four months. I have also instructed you to pay what you consider fair prices, and not to bo allured by the fascination of temporarily reduced rates, which, in the event of competition being staved off, would probably be followed by much increased prices. Those instructions still hold good. It will be for you to determine whether or not the price suggested by the Company is a fair one, and if so, it might guide you in all your arrangements. But if by the term " contract," which the Superintendent of Otago uses, it is meant that you are to enter into an arrangment extending over a lengthened term, not resolvable at short notice, you are not to consider that anything I am about to write authorizes you to do so. Subject to what I have now written, and at the termination of any arrangement you may have made in accordance with the instructions in mv letter of 24th December, and my telegram forwarded on 26th December, I desire that you should divide equally between the New Zealand Shipping Company and the Albion Company your London business between London and Otago, and therefore that for the present, and until I further instruct you, you will not give to Messrs. Shaw, Savill, and Co.'s vessels any Otago business. "With respect to other parts of the Colony, the instructions given in my letter of 24th December, and my telegram forwarded on 26th December, will remain in force for the present. I have, &c, The Agent-G-eneral for New Zealand, London. Julius Vogel.