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H.—2.

Enclosure 3 in No. 2. To ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME : I, Sir Sills John Gibbons, Bart., Lord Mayor of the Citj of London, do hereby certify that on the 22nd day of August, 1872, personally came and appeared before me Alexander Scott "and William Eeid Sutherland, the declarants named in the declarations hereunto annexed, and by solemn declaration which the said declarants made before me in due form of law, did solemnly and sincerely declare to be true the matters and things mentioned and contained in their several and respective annexed declarations. In faith and testimony whereof, I the said Lord Mayor have hereunto signed my name, and caused the seal of the office of mayoralty of the said City of London to be hereunto put and affixed. Dated in London the 22nd day of August, in the year of our Lord, 1872. (1.5.) Sills Jxo. Gibbons, Mayor. Eich. J. Pawlet, Deputy-Eegistrar. I, Alexander Scott, of 34, Leadenhall Street, in the City of London, formerly master mariner, but now in the employment of Messrs. Shaw, Saville, and Co., of the above address, in the capacity of ship's husband to their emigrant ships, do solemnly and sincerely declare as follows: —■ 1. I have been in the service of the said Messrs. Shaw, Saville, and Co., in the above capacity, for nearly ten years, and previously thereto I was a master mariner for twenty-five years, and during the whole of this period I had the command of emigrant and troop ships ; and previously to my being master, I had been brought up as a seaman and officer on board passenger ships. 2. I have perused the report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into certain matters connected with the immigrants on the ship " England," dated Wellington, 10th May, 1872, and the appendix annexed thereto, being the evidence taken on the inquiry in respect to the ship " England," which had been chartered by the said Messrs. Shaw, Saville, and Co. for the purpose of conveying passengers to New Zealand. 3. On Monday, the 4th day of December, 1871, the said ship "England" was lying in the East India Docks. I was on board superintending the embarisation of the emigrants, who came on board on that day, and who were victualled under my superintendence and by a cook provided by Messrs. Shaw, Saville, and Co., who acted under my orders. I remained on board the ship day and night, and I never heard a word of complaint from the emigrants for want of food, and lam positive that none of them went short. I say that the statement of John Daniel, contained on page 12 of the said appendix, that the emigrants got no food on Monday on board ship, is a gross falsehood, which is contradicted by the evidence of William Cullen, contained on page 15 of the said appendix, which states the fact before spoken to by me, namely, that the said Messrs. Shaw, Saville, and Co. sent the cook, who was on board on the arrival of the emigrants, who got dinner the came day they arrived, and that the stores that the said cook prepared for them were independent of the ship's stores. 4. I say that on the 4th day of December, when the said emigrants came on board, all the fittings of the ship were complete except the ventilation, which was not completed until the vessel reached Gravesend, on Thursday, the 7th day of December aforesaid. 5. By the charter party, of which a copy is set out on page 26 of the said appendix, the ventilation of the ship was contracted to be done by the owners, and it was no part of the duty of Messrs. Shaw, Saville, and Co. to provide for the ventilation of the ship. I spoke to George Henry Harrington, the master and owner of the said ship, several times in regard to his neglect in not providing proper ventilation ; and the Emigration Officer also complained to him in my presence to the like effect. The passengers remained on board three days without sufficient ventilation, solely in consequence of the neglect of the said G. H. Harrington, who never came on board of the said vessel to attend to his duties in the course of the day, but who was in the habit of coming on board after dark, in order, as I believe, that he might avoid his creditors in the daylight. 6. In reference to the statement of the said G. H. Harrington, on the first page of the said appendix, that the provisions and water were examined and sampled on the dock quay before bringing them on board, I say that this is not true. The said G. H. Harrington, as he goes on to state, was not himself present, and therefore knows nothing of the matter. The said provisions and water were examined and sampled on board in the usual and customary manner by one of the Emigration Officers of the port of London. 7. In reference to the statement of the said G. H. Harrington, on page 4 of the said appendix, that when the emigrants arrived on Monday the ship was unprepared to receive them, I say that this is not true; that the ship, so far as regards accommodation for the emigrants was concerned, was quito ready; but I admit that, by reason of unavoidable delay in consequence of obtaining the cargo,—which arose through stress of weather, which prevented its arrival, —that the main hatch was left open for the said Monday night, but I did the best I possibly could to prevent cold or draught, by hanging sails round the said main hatch, and also supplied charcoal stoves to keep the between-decks warm. I deny that anything was done by the said G. H. Harrington, for I say that the said sails were hung up before he came on board. 8. In reference to the statement of John Daniel, on page 12 of the said appendix, that the waterclosets were not ready for several days after the emigrants came on board, I say that the said waterclosets were ready, but that it might have happened, as it often does happen, that they, or some of them, became inaccessible, at least without inconvenient publicity, during the embarkation. There is, however, a water-closet for the women and a privy for the men on the dock quay, close to where the ship was lying. This water-closet and privy were built specially for the accommodation of emigrants byMessrs. Shaw, Saville, and Co.'s passenger ships, and were built by the Dock Company at their request.