TREATMENT OF IMPORTANT EVIDENCE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 107, 2 November 1914, Page 6

TREATMENT OF IMPORTANT EVIDENCE

TO TBR EDITOR. Sir,— There is a matter which I think should be ventilated through the columns of tho prees, and I am, therefore, writing to you for this express purpose. ' In your issue of the 17th iiifct. there was an account of a deputation which waited on the Prime Minister with regard to questions of steamer freight between here and the Old' Country. Mr. W. D. Lysnar, of Gisborne, and myeelfe were two of the speakers. Statements were made which the Premier stated should be given to the Committee that had already taken evidence regarding shipping. He said he would do hi* best to' make arrangement* for this Committee to sit again and hear the evidence we had to give, with the result that on Monday afternoon, the 19th inßt. ; Mr. Lysnar commenced to give his evidence before the Committee, and continued on the 20th and 21st. On tho latter date I also gave my evidence, both of us being subject to cross-examination by members of the Committee, _ etc. The type-written copy of my evidence sent i to me for correction and signature did 1 not reach me until the morning's post • of the 28th, and you can judge my surprise when I received a telephone message from the House on the afternoon of | the same day ( advising that Sir Walter I Buchanan was presenting a report to i Parliament. This was at 3 p.m., and I j had just finished correcting my evidence and eigned it, and had it in my pocket while I was sitting in the House listening to the debate on the report, which was supposed to be based on the evidence taken. Certain speakers stated that the order of reference was: (1) To | enquire into the question, of the contonv plated rise of 25 per cent, of freight, and (2) whether there were sufficient ships available. Nor, sir, I ask you, if the Prime Mb> ister knew— and I prjgttne he must have known— what tho otGWot .reference was, why did he tell the deputation that the Committee was' the right place to lodge complaints, such as wo were givfttfc voice I to? Did lie recommend this procedure, knowing that the Committee would have to frame its report without dealing with I the matters which we brought before it ? also, why did the Committee receive our evidence if it knew it was outside the order of reference, and how did the Committee frame its report without the evidence before it? For, as advised above, my evidence was in my pocket vyhen the report was being read in Parliament. The position how is that since the House has decided that • the evidence shall not be published, it would be a breach of privilege for us to use thab evidence in the manner in which it was given before the Committee, and I claim that the matter is of sufficient importance and the complaints made sufficiently serious to warrant different treatment from the Prime Minister of New Eea* land.— l am, etc., , H. G. HILL, General Manager, Bristol and Dominions' Producers' Association, Ltd. \ 30th October, 1914. By every direct boat from now until Christmas we have arriving parcels of dainty gift ties, is lid to 4s 6d. Geo. 1 l ? 2&«bi Ltd, 4 Mannurfi-fitrcct.— Advt,