3

H.—36

Enclosure in No. 3. Proceedings of a Court of Inquiry assembled at Newcastle, Waikato, on the 27th March, 1875, by order of the Hon. Sir Donald McLean, K.C.M.G.. to investigate and report upon certain Charges preferred against Captain Bowe, Engineer Volunteer Militia, by J. S. Craig, lately a Non-commissioned Officer in the same Corps. —Investigating Officer, Major Gohdon. The Court being assembled, and the accused and accuser being present, the charges for inquiry are read over in the hearing of both parties. The charges as preferred by Craig will be found in the annexed correspondence, but are shortly as follow: — Ist Charge. —That Captain Eowe, in September last, was directed to sell a mare, the property of Government; that he did so for the sum of £35, and on receiving payment he credited the Government with £30, and pocketed the remaining £5. 2nd Charge. —That Captain Howe, in September last, so falsified the working pay accounts of certain men of his corps (Baskeville and Flynn) in order that he might obtain for his own use their working pay, amounting in all to seven days' pay, and that consequently the Government lost these seven days' working pay. In prosecution of these charges, Mr. Craig proceeds to state his case as the first evidence, and informs the Court that on or about the 29th August, 1874, Mr. Lovell, storekeeper at Taupiri, purchased a mare, the property of the Government, from Captain Eowe, which was then in his possession as captain of No. 1 Company, Engineer Volunteer Militia, for the sum of £35, the price which had been fixed by Major Cooper, when he empowered Captain Eowe to sell the mare. I was informed of the transaction by Mr. Lovell, who told me that he had purchased the mare and paid £35 for it. He informed me immediately after making the bargain. I was informed of the transaction also by Captain Eowe himself on the same date—that is, Captain Eowe told me that he had sold the mare to Mr. Lovell, but did not mention for what price. On the sth September, Captain Eowe ordered me to go to Newcastle —I was acting as pay-sergeant and quartermaster-sergeant at this time to No. 1 Company —and went there to meet Mr. Lovell (who was at this time employed there), to receive the sum of £34 from him as balance of the price of the mare which he had sold to him. Mr. Lovell or Captain Eowe had informed me having paid to him £1 as a deposit at the time of purchase; and that if I received the money I was to lodge the sum of £30 in the Bank of New Zealand at Newcastle, to the credit of the Public Account, and to bring back the difference, £4, to him. On his giving me these instructions, he said that he did not see why he should not make a pound as well as another. I then went to Newcastle as ordered, and met Mr. Lovell there. I got a cheque for £34 from him as balance of the price of the mare, and gave him a receipt for that sum. I then went and lodged £30 of the cheque at the Bank of New Zealand with Mr. Hume, the manager, and took back the difference, £4, to Captain Eowe, at Taupiri. I gave him the money in the presence of Lance-Sergeant Cook in the orderly room. About the end of September or beginning of October, I met Major Cooper at Newcastle in the street. He had been informed of the transaction from some other source and asked me about it. I told him what I did know about it. Major Cooper saw Mr Lovell immediately after that in the street, Sergeant-Major Small, myself, and others being present. Major Cooper asked Mr. Lovell in my hearing how much he paid to Captain Eowe for the mare which he had bought from him. Mr. Lovell hesitated, and seemed at a loss to know what to say. He said he could not exactly say, but thought he had paid £30 for it. Major Cooper pressed the question, and said he thought it curious that he should forget a transaction of so recent a date. Mr. Lovell said that he could not tell unless he saw his books, and took out a, note-book from his pocket in which he commenced to turn over the leaves in a meaningless manner, which all present took as an attempt to gain time to think, instead of answering the question. Major Cooper then asked him for a copy of the receipt he had obtained from Captain Eowe for the price of the mare; and as Mr. Lovell and I were going to Taupiri that night, he ordered me to call at Mr. Lovell's place for a copy of the receipt. Major Cooper then left us, when Mr. Hope, who was present, said to Mr. Lovell, " You know well enough that the price you paid for the mare was £35, and the mare was below her value at that." Mr. Lovell made him no definite answer. He went to Taupiri that night. Before I called on Mr. Lovell next morning, I saw him and Captain Eowe having a conversation together in front of Mr. Lovell's door. When I called for a copy of the receipt, Mr. Lovell took a copy off the top of his file and handed me the copy. Seeing it to be a manufactured one, I looked at it and then at him. He smiled, and said that (meaning the document he had just given me) is the copy that he was going to give, and that he would save Eowe if he could, not so much for his (Captain Eowe's) own sake as for his wife's; but that if ever he was put upon oath, he would tell the truth. He made the same admission in my presence, and in that of Sergeant-Major Small, on the night that we saw Major Cooper, on the road to the barracks in Newcastle, and in the Sergeant-Major's quarters. Shortly before my leaving the Engineer Volunteer Militia force, Mr. Lovell came to the orderly room at Taupiri, and requested me to go to his house, as he wanted to speak to me. I went, as requested. He then told me that he had had some angry words with Captain Eowe that morning, on account of Captain Eowe refusing to assist him to recover some debts contracted by some one or more men of his company ; that Captain Eowe had said he was not going to act as bailiff for him ; that he said, in answer, that if Captain Eowe did not do better for him than he was doing, he would shift him out of that, as he had the power to do so—saying to me, " You know, Sergeant Craig, I have the power." On the 24th September, 1874, Captain Eowe advanced £1 each to two men of his company, Baskeville and Flynn, on account of their being dissatisfied at or with having the sum of £L stopped out of their wages for clothing, of which they had not received any part. I saw the advance made by Captain Eowe, who told them that he would stop it out of their next pay. To this the men agreed. Captain Eowe instructed me at the same time to write out an order, which these men might sign, and to obtain their signatures, so that he might recover his money on next pay day, which I did. These men then wanted a pass, which Captain Eowe granted. On these men not returning at the expiration of their passes, I reported the matter -to Captain Eowe, at the same time mentioning to him that