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NOTES OF PROCEEDINGS AND OF EVIDENCE. Saturday, 28th October, 1876. The Commission was read and the proceedings commenced at the Courthouse, Gisborne, at 11 o'clock a.m. Mr. J. A. Wilson appeared in person. Mr. Eogan asked leave to employ professional assistance. It was decided that either party might employ such assistance. (Mr. W. W. Wilson then appeared for Mr. Eogan). In reply to the notice received from the Commissioners as to furnishing written statements of charges, Mr. Wilson put in a letter, and subsequently a memorandum, which were read. It was then arranged that further written statements, if any, should be put in on each side on Monday next, the 30th instant, and served on the opposite party ; and that each party should at the same time furnish the Commissioners with the names of such witnesses as they are likely to require. The Commission was then adjourned to Wednesday, the Ist November, at 11 a.m.

Monday, 30th October, 1876. Mr. Wilson called upon the Commissioners and put in a further memorandum,* by way of supplement to his report of 6th June, and his minutes upon the payment vouchers. Mr. Wilson also asked leave to withdraw his letter of the 27th instant, which he had put in at the first sitting of the Commission, saying that it was written under a misunderstanding of the notice sent him by the Commissioners, as to making specific charges in writing. Mr. Wilson also furnished a list of the witnesses he might probably require.

Appendix, No. 3.

Wednesday, Ist November, 1876. The Commission reopened at 11 a.m. Mr. Wilson's letter of the 27th was withdrawn as requested. Mr. W. W. Wilson, on behalf of Mr. Eogan, asked that the Native Assessor of the Land Court (Hori Peeti) might be present at the inquiry. Leave granted. After some discussion, it was arranged that Mr. J. A. Wilson should be furnished by to-morrow morning with copies of the following documents : — 1. Letter of Mr. Eogan to Under Secretary, in answer to Mr. Wilson's report, 6th September, 1876. 2. Memorandum headed "Be Wilson's complaint," undated, and on file 4461, beginning with the words " In April last." 3. Memorandum in answer to Mr. Wilson's note on payment of vouchers, beginning " This is the second time, &c." 4. Mr. Eogan's letter to Mr. Locke, of 20th September, 1876; also a statement to be furnished with regard to payment of money by Mr. Wilson upon a block called " Mangatu." Evidence was then taken as follows : — John Alexander Wilson sworn. I hold the office of Land Purchase Officer for the East Coast, Bay of Plenty District. I have held the office since April, 1875. I was engaged in a similar employment previously to that as a Commissioner. Altogether I have been engaged in buying land for the Government about three years and a half. My duties are to purchase Native land for the Government under the Immigration and Public Works Act and the Native Land Act. I also regulate my transactions by what I understand to be the constitutional rights of the Crown outside those Acts when not repugnant to them. I have been connected with Native land transactions since the year 1866. I then, as Crown Agent for the Government, settled 440,000 acres in the Bay of Plenty; there were many thousand claims in that block, and many hundred sections. In that business 1 acted with the Judge of the Compensation Court. After that I was placed upon the Civil List of the colony in the Native Department. In 1869 I went into private business in Native lands in the Thames, Ohinemuri, and Bay of Plenty Districts. I continued in that business until I accepted my present office, and during that time I was Native agent, on behalf of Craig, in the largest Native case that ever came before the Supreme Court. The first block of land mentioned to me by Sir D. McLean since I have held my present office was a block called Motu, a very extensive block, in the Poverty Bay District, extending towards Opotiki. In June, 1873, I first came into this district from the Bay of Plenty. At that time there was no Native Land Court in the Poverty Bay District, but Messrs. Eogan and Munro were sitting here as Land Commissioners. The Natives were then in an excited state about their lands. The windows of the Commissioners' Court at Gisborne had been broken, and the Constabulary had been reinforced. In consequence of the excited state of the Native mind some few months elapsed before my operations * See Appendix to Notes of Evidence and Proceedings, Nos. 1, 2, and 3.