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The Undee-Seceetary for Public Works to Messrs. Brogden and Sons. Gentlemen,— Wellington, 29th August, 1881. I am directed by the Acting Minister for Public Works to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, subject and date as noted in the margin (25th August), and to state that the same will be considered. I have, &c, John Knowles, Messrs. J. Brogden and Sons, Wellington. Under-Secretary for Public Works.

The ITndeb-Seceetaey for Public Woeks to Messrs. Brogden and Sons. Gentlemen, — Wellington, 24th September, 1881. I am directed by the Acting Minister for Public Works to reply to your letter of the 25th instant, in which you again request to be informed what steps the Government propose to take in the event of certain questions being decided in a particular manner by the Court of Appeal. I am to point out that your letter is practically a request to be informed what steps the Government have been advised by the Law Officers of the Crown to take in defence to the Invercargill— Mataura and Clutha Platelaying claims ; the Government, therefore, adhere to the decision notified to you in my letter of the 23rd ultimo. With reference to your observations on the subject of " The Government Contractors Arbitration Act, 1872," I am to remind you that the grave charges which on a former occasion your firm formulated in a letter to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, referring to the Act in question, were, upon investigation, entirely disproved; and the Government must decline to reopen the question, or to discuss the provisions of a statute which the Parliament of the colony has thought fit to pass. I have, &c, John Knowles, Messrs. J. Brogden and Sons, Wellington. Under-Secretary for Public Works.

Messrs. Beogden and Sons to the Hon. the Minister for Public Woeks. Sir,— Wellington, 7th October, 1881. In acknowledging receipt of your letter of the 24th September, we beg to observe that our letter of the 25th August, and the correspondence immediately preceding it, did not refer to the Petitions of Right in the Invercargill-Mataura and Clutha Platelaying cases, but to the other Petitions of Eight, which up to the present time have been refused to be granted to us ; and we are unable to see how you could construe it into a request for information as to the defence in the two cases named. We must further remark that we cannot accept your statement as to the investigation of the subject of " The Government Contractors Act, 1872." We are not aware of any other inquiry, except that which is stated in parliamentary paper E.-3, 1878, containing a correspondence between the legal advisers of the colony. It was to this document we referred in our letter of the 25th August, but it is an error to call this correspondence an investigation. We observe that in the Invercargill case you charge us with having received £111,321 11s. 3d., notwithstanding the fact that in your voucher, February, 1879, you have deducted £2,241 ss. Id. from moneys stated to be underpaid on the Napier, Moeraki, and Taieri Contracts, which you allege has been overpaid on the Invercargill Contract, and thus reducing the amount paid on this contract by that sum. You surely do not mean to make this money do duty twice over, but will now pay up the amount retained. We have, &c, The Hon. the Minister for Public Works, Wellington. John Beogden and Sons.

The Undee-Secretary for Public Works to Messrs. Beogden and Sows. Gentlemen, —■ Public Works Office, Wellington, 22nd October, 1881. I have the honor, by direction of the Acting Minister for Public Works, to inform you, in reply to your letter of the 7th instant, that the Government still consider that to supply the information requested in your letter of the 25th August would practically be to inform you of the advice which the Government have received from their Law Officers. With reference to your observations that in the Invercargill and Mataura claim you are charged with having received £L11,321 11s. 3d., though the Government have deducted from payments alleged to be due to you on other contracts the sum of £2,241 ss. Id., I am to call your attention to the fact that the pleas pleaded on behalf of the Government to the Petition of liight on the InvercargillMataura Contract expressly aver that, by the payments made to you for which credit is claimed by the Government, you have been overpaid. lam further directed to say that the Government cannot enter into discussion upon the form or effect of pleadings in the proceedings pending in the Supreme Court. I have, &c, J. Knowles, Messrs. J. Brogden and Sons. Under-Secretary for Public Works.

Messrs. Brogden and Sons to the Hon. the Minister for Public Works. Sik,— Wellington, 11th November, 1881. We have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 22nd ultimo. As the time for the hearing of the Petition of Bight on the Invercargill Contract is now so close at hand, we abstain at present from farther correspondence on the other petitions. With reference to the alleged overpayment on the Invercargill Contract, we beg to observe that you arbitrarily deducted, in February, 1879, from the moneys due to us, £2,241 ss. Id. in respect of these alleged overpayments You now, in the accounts furnished, show an alleged overpayment of £1,224 Bs. 5d., and not £2,241 ss. Id., as deducted; but, nevertheless, you both retain the difference

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