23

D.—la

with the colony, and we therefore don't see our way to securing freight either outwards or homewards.' I am aware that the difficulty is not recognized by you. You believe, as you say in your letter of October, that any broker would any hour charter for me as many ships as I required ; but I have little doubt that the late manager of the New Zealand Shipping Company, Mr. Turner, will disabuse your mind of this idea." 11. Tour letter now under consideration seems to me to singularly conflict with the passage I have quoted. The circumstantial account you give of your proceedings in this letter contains no reference to brokers working for you whilst you were negotiating with the three companies. It states, moreover, that finding after several personal interviews that they were not disposed to yield, you placed yourself in communication with certain firms, and instructed certain brokers to procure you ships on the best terms they could, and that in the course of a week or ten days Jive ships were offered to you. Subsequently you had easily engaged two or three more ships. How this prompt action of the brokers is reconcilable with the passage in your letter of the 17th April, which I have quoted, I am at a loss to understand. I have, &c, The Agent-General for New Zealand, London. Julius Vogel. By Authority: Geobge Didsbtjby, Government Printer, Wellington.—lß74. [Price Is.]