1.—3

18

stated that I had made some arrangements about the matter which must be countermanded. That night I proceeded to Auckland by the night boat, and got there about midnight. I saw Mr. Mackay and Mr. Allom, who was Mining Registrar of the Hauraki District. Mr. Allorn had been in town assisting Mr. Mackay to get the Proclamations and Schedules drawn up, and they told me what arrangements had been made —that my arrangements had been altered, and that the gold field was to be opened on the 3rd March, which was a Wednesday. I then told Mr. Mackay that first thing next morning I should go and .see Dr. Pollen, because I did not think that the arrangement ho proposed would succeed ; that it would be very apt to create confusion, and that I thought he had better allow my arrangements to be carried out. I went to Dr. Pollen's house at the Whau, about six miles from Auckland, where I saw him on Sunday, and we arranged everything that was to be done. All the arrangements that were made by Dr. Pollen and Mr. Mackay were to be carried out, with the exception of the arrangement for the issue of the miners' rights, which was to be carried out on the system that I had advertised. Dr. Pollen wrote a telegram in his own house to this effect, to be sent to Mr. Mackay if he had left Auckland. I took that telegram to town myself, and, as Mr. Mackay had left Auckland in the steamer " Effort," I forwarded it to him. I also sent telegrams to the proprietors of the Thames Advertiser and the Evening Star, telling them that my advertisement should be continued as it was, merely altering the date, when we first supposed the field would be opened, to the 3rd March, and making the days of the attendance of Mr. Mackenzie (who was clerk in my office) at Ohinemuri on Monday and Tuesday, instead of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, as had been previously arranged. I remained in town on the Sunday night, and on Monday forenoon I got the Proclamations and everything completed with Dr. Pollen, and the regulations ready to take down with the Gazette containing the Proclamations. I left town by the night steamer at 5 o'clock that evening. Mr. Allom, who was superintending the printing and other things, missed his passage; but the Government forwarded him by the "Luna" that night, and he arrived at the Thames early next morning with all the documents. When I arrived on the Tuesday morning at the Thames, I found that my advertisement had been taken out of the Thames Advertiser with regard to the issue of miners' rights, and that one of Mr. Mackay's, as Government Agent, had been substituted. Immediately I discovered this, I told the proprietors of the paper that they had no business to alter my advertisement at all, and they said that Mr. Mackay had been there and said that all the arrangements had been altered, and that I had no business to put the advertisement in. Consequently they took my advertisement out and substituted his. I telegraphed the circumstance to the Hon. Dr. Pollen, and I presume he put himself into communication with Mr. Mackay on the subject, because Dr. Pollen telegraphed to me informing me that Mr. Mackay stated he had not received the Hon. Dr. Pollen's telegram ; but that the best must be made of things now, and he would take care that everything would go on smoothly, or something to that effect. I produced that telegram at the inquiry. On that day Mr. Allom and myself went to Ohinemuri, where we arrived between 1 and 2 o'clock. Mr. Mackenzie, a clerk whom I had forwarded to carry on the arrangements with Mr. Mackay, was also at Ohinemuri. Mr. Mackay had so far modified his arrangements that he introduced the ticket system as I proposed to do, with the difference that miners were to come in the morning immediately after the Proclamation and get the miners' rights exchanged for their tickets before they went to peg out. When I got there, money had been received and tickets were being issued for applications. I got some coloured tickets that might easily be identified as coming from the office, and they were numbered, and as each man or party of men came for their right, or bundle of rights, they got the right or rights which corresponded with, their tickets in number. When these rights were made out, a ticket corresponding with the one that was given to the party was doubled over them, and they were all pinned together. When a man produced a ticket, the bundle of miners' rights with the corresponding number was handed to him in exchange. This arrangement continued, and Mr. Mackenzie continued issuing tickets till 5 o'clock that evening; and at 5 o'clock, as a great many people continued coming to the gold field, I arranged to continue issuing tickets up to 10 o'clock that night, so as not to inconvenience them. I decided that anybody who had not got a ticket at 10 o'clock would require to come after the Proclamation, and immediately the whole of the people who had applied and who had paid money had theirs issued to them, the others would get their rights. Then these rights had to be made out and arranged. In the meantimo Mr. Mackay had got the use of a very large tent, in which it was intended to issue the miners' rights. To prevent the crowd knocking down this tent it was left open at one side, along which a barricade of post and rails was put up to prevent the miners forcing into the place. That night we also had some clerks employed, consisting of a detachment of the Armed Constabulary that was stationed there, Mr. Dunnett, Mr. Crippen, and some other persons who were in Mr. Mackay's employ, to help to make out the miners' rights after 10 o'clock that night. They were making out the miners' rights in the daytime after the people had made their applications. None of them were signed till I arrived. When I arrived I commenced signing them, and signed 900 of them, in books containing 100 each, and gave them to Mr. Allom, who was appointed Receiver of Revenue for the district. Between 1 and 2 o'clock that night the whole of the rights were ready. They were compared with the pieces of paper that the people gave. Whenever anybody came to apply for miners' rights who did not bring a list of the names of the persons for whom he wanted the miners' rights, the clerk wrote the names on a slip of paper, which was numbered ■with the number of the ticket given to the applicant. There were 247 tickets issued. Previous to this, at Ohinemuri, it had been arranged by the Hon. Dr. Pollen and Mr. Mackay how the applications for these miners' rights were to be received from Natives and other people, and Mr. Mackay had arranged with these people that if he got their names and the money, the miners' rights would be issued to them on the morning of the Proclamation. A good many people had applied to Mr. Mackay before the ticket arrangement had come into operation, and after all my miners' rights had been made out, Mr. Mackay's had to be made out; and it was arranged that the applications that were made to Mr. Mackay should be dealt with, and the rights issued for them at another compartment simultaneously with the issue of the ones for which tickets had been given at 10 o'clock, immediately after the reading of the Proclamation. The front of the tent was divided into ten compartments, which were placarded on the outside. Mr. Mackay's was " for applications received by Mr. Mackay." Mine

Captain Fraser, R.M. 20t!i Sept., 1875.