1.—2

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Deposition of Hori Ngatai at Tauranga. I, Hori Ngatai, of Whareroa, do hereby solemnly and sincerely declare, that on the fifth day of January, 1876, I landed at Tauranga along with Enoka, and was met by Mr. Pitt, Mr. Eead's agent, who said, " Let us go to my house," meaning the Old Victoria Hotel. He, Mr. Pitt, then said, " Will you give your votes to Captain Eead ?" I then replied in a joke, "If you give me something in my hand, I will secure my friends' votes and my own." Mr. Pitt then said, "Have you sufficient confidence in yourself as to be able to lead your people to vote for us?" I then replied, " Tes, if you will put the money in my hand." He, Mr. Pitt, replied, "I will place the money in your hand," aud asked me how much should I require. I replied, " £25, not for me and Enoka, but for the tribe." I further asked him for a separate sum for me and Enoka, and he agreed to give us £2 each, making £29 in all. The same evening I returned to Whareroa and called a meeting of the voters at my house, ten in number, and inquired of them what part they intended to take at the election, and they answered by saying they were in favour of Captaiu Morris and Mr. Kelly. I said, " Are you not willing to follow me?" and they then asked me which side I was for. I replied, "I am for Captain Eead." They then said, " Have you received any money, that makes you so anxious for Mr. Eead ?" I told them I had, and showed them the money, viz. £25. They, the voters assembled, then agreed to vote for the money. I then took down their names, but have lost that paper in the flurry occurring at the time. On the day of election, I and all the voters came to Tauranga and met there the electors from other parts; amongst them Te Kuka, Te Puru, Te Harawira, Te Mete, and Akuhata Tupaea, and spoke to them, telling them we were chiefs ; the others, meaning the men of our tribes, were different to us; but it would be advisable to draw these people with us ; and they all agreed to do so. Te Mete said he would be responsible for his people, and the other chiefs said the same. I then told them, the chiefs, I had money for them, and wrote down their names and those of their people who would vote for Captain Eead, and they amounted to forty. Mr. Pitt then came and asked if all the electors had arrived. I said they had, and gave him the list of forty voters. He then said, " Tou and Enoka must not vote, as you might be found out ;" and I and Enoka agreed not to do so. He then left us, and afterwards came and said to me, " We cannot get our voters into the booth, owing to the crush." Mr. Hallows gave the voters referred to tickets showing their numbers on the roll. I went in to the booth and spoke to Mr. Hamlin, not to vote, but to ask him to have the way cleared so that our people could come in. Mr. Hamlin agreed to do so, and had the way cleared. 1 then arranged my men, and sent them in in parties to vote ; and I believe the whole of the forty so sent in would have voted for Captain Morris ; but when I had showed them the money, I believe they voted for Captain Eead. After the close of the poll, Mr. Pitt said, " Where are your forty voters, as only thirty have been recorded for him, and several of those votes are from Europeans ? " I told him that thirty had voted for Eead, but the other ten, old and foolish, might have voted for Morris and Kelly. Mr. Pitt then agreed to that. We, the chiefs previously mentioned, then met, and I told the other Natives to go home to their respective settlements, and to leave the remainder to me, meaning to my thoughts. The next morning Akuhata Tupaea, Te Harawiri, and Te Mete came to me at Whareroa to receive their share of the money I had received from Captain Pitt, which I then divided as follows : —Te Mete, for himself and tribe, £5 ; Akuhata Tupaea, £5 ;Te Harawira, £5 ; the Whareroa voters, £5 ; and I kept the balance of the money, viz. £5, for my own services. Enoka was present with me in the conversation I had with Mr. Pitt in his house, and saw me receive the money. Mr. Pitt requested me at that time to hide the money. I received at the time I first saw Mr. Pitt the £4 for me and Enoka, in addition to the other £25 intended for the other voters. Hori Ngatai. Taken and sworn before me, this eleventh day of January, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six. J. M. Eoberts, E.M., Tauranga. Certificate of Conviction of Major Pitt For Bribery. In the Supreme Court of New Zealand, Northern District. I hereby certify that at a Circuit Court of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, held at Auckland for the Northern District of New Zealand, on the third day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six, was indicted for that on the sixth day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six, the Electoral District of East Coast in the Colony of Zealand was and still is an electoral district, sending and returning one member to serve for the said electoral district in the General Assembly of New Zealand : And that before the committing of the offences in the said indictment mentioned, to wit on the sixth day of January aforesaid, at the East Coast aforesaid, an election of a member to serve in the General Assembly of New Zealand aforesaid, as member for the said Electoral District of East Coast, was expected shortly to be had and made, which said expected election afterwards —to wit, on the said sixth day of January in the year aforesaid, at the Electoral District of East Coast aforesaid, was had and made: And that Choi well Dean Pitt, unlawfully and corruptly intending to hinder and prevent the free and indifferent election of a member to serve in the General Assembly of New Zealand for the said Electoral District of East Coast, and by illegal and corrupt means to procure George Edward Eead (who before and at the time of the said election was a candidate to represent the said Electoral District of East Coast in the said General Assembly) to be elected a member to serve in the said General Assembly of New Zealand for the said Electoral District of East Coast, did, on the sixth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six, at Tauranga, within the said Electoral District of East Coast, unlawfully and corruptly give to one Hori Ngatai a hirge sum of money, in order to induce the said Hori Ngatai to procure the return of the said George Edward Eead to serve in the said General Assembly for the said electoral district, to the great destruction and hindrance of the freedom of election of a member to serve in the