I—6a.

1880. NEW ZEALAND.

REPORT OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE. PAYMENT OF £300 TO MR. SIEVWRIGHT.

Bejgort brought up August, 1880, and ordered to be printed.

ORDERS OP REFERENCE. Extracts from tlie Journals of the House of Representatives. Wednesday, the 7th Day of July, 1880. Ordered, That the Report of the Controller and Auditor-General on the subject of the payment of the sum of £300 to Mr. Sievwright, be referred to the Public Accounts Committee.— (Hon. Mr. Hall.) Tuesday, the 24th day of August, 1880. Ordered, That the evidence taken in the case of the sum of £300 paid to Mr. Sievwright, by the Treasury, which is now before the Public Accounts Committee, be laid upon the table of this House, and be printed.— (Sir O. Grey.)

REPORT. The Public Accounts Committee to whom has been referred by the House the Memorandum of the Controller and Auditor-General upon tbe subject of the payment of the sum of £300 to Mr. Sievwright, have the honour to report as follows : — That the payment was made to Mr. Sievwright, and by him to Mr. Eees, as a retaining fee, in two sums of £150 each, on the 2nd and 4th August, 1879. These dates fall in the interval between the defeat of Sir George Grey's Ministry, on July 29th, and the prorogation of Parliament on August 11th, prior to the dissolution. In granting the dissolution, the Governor stated the circumstances under which he did so to be, " Ministers have lost the confidence of the representatives of the people, and are about to appeal from them to the country. A majority of the House of Representatives have declared that Ministers have so neglected and mismanaged the administrative business of the country that they no longer possess the confidence of Parliament. It is indispensable in such circumstances, if Ministers do not at once resign, that Parliament should be dissolved with the least possible delay, and that meanwhile no measure should be proposed that may not be imperatively required, nor any contested motion whatever brought forward." The Committee understand from the evidence of Sir George Grey that the reason wby it was considered advisable by the then Ministry to retain counsel was, that Ministers intended to appoint a Commission to enquire fully into the whole question of Native rights to land on the West Coast of the North Island, and that they thought counsel should be engaged to get up evidence and represent the interests of Natives before such Commission. Counsel was engaged accordingly, through the instrumentality of Mr. Hoani Nahe, a member of the Administration, but no Commission was appointed. The reason no Commission was appointed is understood to be because of the Governor's general prohibition just quoted. It is, however, difficult to understand how it was that the appointment of the Commission should be held to come within the prohibitory language of the Governor, whilst the payment of a retaining fee to counsel to appear before a Commission that could not be appointed till after the election of a new Parliament was held to be not included in that language. At the time the payment was made Parliament was in session, Supply was not disposed of, and a vote might easily have been proposed in Committee of Supply had the Government thought fit.