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No. 8. Mr. H. T. Kemp, C.C, Auckland, to Mr. E. M. Williams, R.M., Waimate, Bay of Islands. Sir, — Civil Commissioner's Office, Auckland, 22nd February, 1877. Upon the recommendation of the Public Petitions Committee, an inquiry is about to take place into certain charges made against you as Returning Officer, by Mr. John Lundon, during the late general election at the Bay of Islands. I am directed by the Hon. Dr. Pollen to inform you that the gentleman named in the margin * has been appointed by the Government to conduct that inquiry, and I am at the same time instructed to request you to be good enough to render Major Clare all possible facilities, and generally to afford him that assistance which your own local knowledge of the facts will enable you to supply. I have, &c, E. M. Williams, Esq., R.M., Waimate, Bay of Islands. H. T. Kemp, C.C.

No. 9. Mr. H. T. Kemp, C.C, Auckland, to Major Clare. Sir, — Civil Commissioner's Office, Auckland, 23rd February, 1877. Referring to your communication of the 17th instant, I am directed by the Hon. Dr. Pollen to request that you will be good enough to proceed to the Bay of Islands at the earliest convenient date. lam also to inform you that Mr. E. M. Williams, R.M., has been instructed to afford you all possible facilities in conducting the inquiry upon which you are about to enter. I have, &c, Major Clare, Cambridge. H. T. Kemp, C.C.

No. 10. Major Clare to Mr. H. T. Kemp, C.C. Sir,— Auckland, 24th March, 1877. Referring to your letters C.C. 77-84 and C.C. 77-249, dated respectively 13th and 23rd February ultimo, I have the honor to report, for the information of the Hon. Dr. Pollen, that under the instructions therein contained I left Waikato on the 2nd instant en route for the Bay of Islands, and arrived at Russell on the 6th, having there ascertained that Mr. John Lundon would probably be found at Hokianga. I succeeded in communicating with him by wire through Mr. Yon Stunner, the Resident Magistrate in that district, and at Mr. Lundon's request, with consent of Mr. Williams, Monday, the 12th March, was fixed upon as the day for entering upon the inquiry which I had been deputed to make into the charges preferred by the first against the last named gentleman as Returning Officer of the Mongonui and Bay of Islands Electoral District. In tho interim heavy rains had fallen ; the rivers had swollen, and ihe country had become difficult for travellers to pass over. In consequence neither of the parties could reach Russell on the day appointed: Mr. Williams arrived in the forenoon and Mr. Luudon late in the evening of Tuesday. Mr. Williams's magisterial duties demanded his presence elsewhere on the following morning, and the inquiry was therefore postponed and fixed for Friday ; and again, at Mr. Lundon's request, who stated that he required certain papers from Auckland, it was further adjourned until Wednesday, the 21st instant. On that day both parties met in the Court House at Russell; the inquiry was entered and brought to completion in about two hours and a half. I now beg to enclose my report upon the case. I have, &c, H. T. Kemp, Esq., . William Clare. Civil Commissioner, Auckland. The documents received with your letter of instructions are also inclosed. —W. C.

Enclosure in No. 10. Report by Major William Clare, J.P., upon an inquiry made by him at Russell, under instructions received in letters dated respectively 13th and 23rd February, 1877, from H. T. Kemp, Esq., Civil Commissioner, into certain charges brought against the Registration Officer of the Mongonui and Bay of Islands Electoral District, in a petition presented to the House of Representatives, during the Session of 1876, by Mr. John Lundon. At 10 o'clock in the forenoon of Wednesday, the 21st of March, 1877, Mr. John Lundon, the petitioner, and Mr. E. M. Williams, the Returning Officer, being present, I opened the proceedings by reading the instructions I have received authorizing me to enter upon the inquiry; also the petition presented to the honorable House of Representatives by Mr. John Lundon, and the report made thereon by the Select Committee on Public Petitions. Mr. Lundon, in his petition, brings forward four charges against Mr. Williams, each charge relating to a separate and distinct act alleged to have been done by him. It was agreed in preliminary conversation that these four charges should be taken up one by one in the order they appear in the petition, and that the inquiry into the first should be completed and closed before entering upon the second, and so on to the end. Mr. Lundon requested that all evidence should be taken upon oath, and this request I declined to accede to.