H.—B

1879. NEW ZEALAND.

ELECTORAL ROLL OF MONGONUI AND BAY OF ISLANDS DISTRICT. (REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSIONER APPOINTED TO INQUIRE INTO CERTAIN MATTERS CONNECTED WITH.)

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

To His Excellency Sir Hercules George. Robert Robinson, Governor of New Zealand. Your Excellency,— In obedience to the terms of a Commission issued to me on the 11th of February last, I have made the inquiry therein indicated and set forth. For reasons which it is not necessary to detail, I thought it best to open the investigation at Russell, in the Bay of Islands ; but, after taking some evidence there, I found that, to render the inquiry exhaustive, it would be necessary to take additional evidence at other places, which, under the terms of your Excellency's Commission, I was able to do. Accordingly, in addition to Russell, I held a Court at Whangaroa, at Mongonui, at Hokianga, and lastly at Auckland. I was accompanied throughout by Mr. Grey, a shorthand reporter, to take notes of the evidence, and by Mr. Brown, interpreter to the Supreme Court at Auckland, to translate the Maori evidence. I have every reason to be satisfied with the assistance rendered me by these gentlemen. A verbatim report of the whole of the evidence given by thirty-eight witnesses was accurately taken, and accompanies this report. However unpleasant some portions of the duty may have been to myself, I think it will be seen that the inquiry has been conducted in an impartial and unsparing manner, and that the report of the evidence will show that it has been searching and exhaustive. Probably the most convenient form in which I can place the matter before your Excellency will be to give a brief narrative of the local political circumstances of the Mongonui and Bay of Islands Electoral District for the last few years; then to direct attention to the salient features of the evidence; and finally to express, in plain terms, as lam commanded to do, my opinion on the various matters and questions on which I am directed to report. Up to the year 1871 political feeling in the Bay of Islands was in a state which may be described as calm and peaceful. The old Mission families, their connections and friends, rested placidly, in the calm assurance that they had a prescriptive right to control the public feeling and political action of the district in which they resided. Maoris, it is true, were on the electoral rolL but this, up to the year 1871, was probably regarded by the dominant families rather as a source of strength than of weakness. At the general election of 1871, however, the serenity of the political atmosphere was rudely disturbed. For it was found that their chosen candidate, Mr. Carleton, was to be opposed by Mr. McLeod, and, incredible as it must have seemed to many, the latter gentleman was actually returned as the member for the district. It is pertinent to this inquiry to remark that the result of the election was said at the time to be mainly due to the active exertions of Mr. John Lundon, a gentleman whose name occurs with great frequency in the evidence taken by me. In 1873, owing to the resignation of Mr. McLeod, another election took place in the district. The candidates this time were Mr. John Lundon and Mr. John Williams, the present member. There was a third candidate, whose name need not appear here, for the contest, which was close, lay between the above-named gentlemen, Mr. "Williams being elected by a small majority. It may here be remarked, by way of parenthesis, that Mr. Edward Marsh Williams, the brother of the successful candidate, filled at that time and up to a recent period the office of Registration and Returning Officer for the Mongonui and Bay of Islands electorate. Mr. John Lundon, the defeated candidate, does not appear to have accepted his defeat as final. On the contrary, with the view apparently of again contesting the seat at some future period, he seems to have determined that the electoral roll should become more favourable to himself. Accordingly, during the registration period of 1874, he caused many electoral claims to be filled up and made, mostly by Maoris and half-castes, who were supposed to be adherents and supporters of his own. And, notwithstanding many discouragements, efforts such as these have been persisted in and continued by Mr. Lundon up to the present time. These continued efforts, which appear only to have been intensified by a second defeat, seem at an early period to have spread consternation and dismay among Mr. Lundon's opponents. Most of the claims preferred by Mr. Lundon's Maori friends were made on freehold qualification, the freehold in all cases being held in common by a number of persons. It was therefore determined to test the validity of that qualification, with the view of