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Mr. T. W. Lewis. 9th Dec. 1879.

" Mr. Sievwright replied in the following terms : 'In reply to Mr. FitzGerald's memorandum of 3rd November, Mr. Sievwright begs to refer to correspondence he has recently had with the Native Office on this subject.—W. Sievwright. 4th November, 1879.' " The Controller then sent Mr. Sievwright the following order : ' The Controller and AuditorGeneral directs Mr. Sievwright to account to the Audit Office for the public moneys, in pursuance of the powers vested in him by law, without reference to any correspondence which may have passed with other offices.—J. E. FitzGerald. 4th November, 1879.' "To which Mr. Sievwright replied on the sth, repeating to the Controller what he had already stated to the Government: namely, that he was employed by Mr. Nahe ; that he was not in any way employed by the Government, either directly or indirectly; that he had been informed that the Ministry, on the application of Mr. Hoani Nahe, had consented to give the Natives the £300 ; that the warrant made the amount payable to himself (Mr. Sievwright); and that he had drawn the money as part payment of the legal costs of his clients, but not in any way as a payment to him from the Government with whom he had had no communication. Mr. Sievwright represented that therefore the £'300 could not be ' public money ' within the meaning of the Bevenues Act : but that personally, he had no objection to afford the fullest information, and had telegraphed to Mr. Nahe for his consent; and that, in anticipation of such consent, he was preparing his own bill of costs, which would show how the £300 had been spent. "On the 6th November the Controller replied to Mr. Sievwright that the £300 had been paid by the Treasury Cashier out of imprest moneys, from which he could not be relieved, as the voucher •conclusively showed that the money had been paid to a solicitor as part payment of legal costs, on the authority of the Native Minister and another member of the Executive Council, but had not been charged to any vote or other authority of Parliament, and remained a debt to the Crown until the Imprestee was discharged by the Audit. The Controller, therefore still required the money to be accounted for. "Thereupon, on the 16th November, Mr. Sievwright replied, sending in his bill of costs, which ho stated had been ready for some days, but he had asked Mr. Bees to send him a memorandum of work •done by him (Mr. Bees) to accompany the account, which had not been received; and Mr. Sievwright called attention to two receipts by Mr. Bees, one for £150, paid to him on 2nd August, and the other for the further sum of £150, paid to him on 4th August. " The bill of costs is for £377 16s. 2d., and includes, besides the payment of the two sums of £150 each to Mr. Eees, a charge for £52 10s. to Mr. Sievwright himself. The bill of costs, which is made oirt to Mr. Nahe, shows that the consultations with Mr. Eees began on 18 th July. On the 2nd and 4th August the two payments of £150 are entered as follows: 'Attendance on Mr. Eees, to pay him as desired on account retainer and fee, 6s. Bd.; paid him per receipt, £150 ; meeting with you and Mr. Gannon and Mr. Eees to-day, when you instructed me to pay the £300 to Mr. Eees, 13s. 4d.; attendance on Mr. Eees to pay him further, 13s. 4d.; paid him, per receipt, £150.' "The receipts themselves are as follow: ' 2nd August: Beceived retainer and fee from Mr. Sievwright, on account of costs for Ngatiawa and Taranaki Natives, £150. —W. L. Eees.' '4th August: Beceived from Mr. Sievwright the sum of £150 on account fees for Natives, Taranaki.— W. L. Eees.' " The last paper in the series is a letter from Dr. Buller to the Native Minister, dated the Bth November, in which he states that, the matter of the payment of this £300 having come to his knowledge that day, he j begged to say that he (Dr. Buller) had been acting as counsel for the Maori prisoners ; that in that capacity he had had frequent interviews with the late Native Minister, in the presence of Mr. Parata, when he had assured the Minister of his desire to avoid embarrassing the Government, that he intended to assist his clients by taking proceedings in the Supreme Court for testing the validity of the confiscation, and that, considering time was important, he would get the consent of his clients to a postponement of the trial. Dr. Buller went on to represent that on one of these occasions the late Native Minister had said that Sir George Grey was willing to help the disaffected Natives with funds for the above purpose; but that he had told Mr. Sheehan at once that all such help must be declined, and that the Natives would have no confidence whatever in the proceedings unless the whole expense was borne by themselves, and the conduct thereof intrusted to lawyers entirely independent of the Government; that a Native committee had been appointed, under whose guidance a certain manifesto had been prepared and circulated, subscription lists opened, and a trust account opened at the Bank of New Zealand ; that from the first this Native committee had resolved to decline all assistance from the Government; that when a rumour became current of the Government having supplied certain money, the President and Secretary (Hon. Mr. Tairoa, M.L.C, and Wi Parata) had come to him in great consternation to know if it were true; that Mr. Travers had been retained by him (Dr. Buller) as the counsel for the Natives ; that it was with astonishment that he (Dr. Buller) had heard from Mr. Eees (that day) of Mr. Hoani Nahe, as professing to represent the Natives, having employed Mr. Sievwright as solicitor, and Mr. Bees as counsel, as well as of the payment of the £300 to Mr. Bees. Dr. Buller concluded by saying, on behalf of the committee of chiefs, that Mr. Nahe had been wholly unauthorised to act in the matter ; that they declined to be connected in any way with the payment of Government money; and that it would be his duty to advise them to publish a repudiation of the transaction in the widest manner." I may mention that this is a precis of the papers made by the clerk of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council. I am acquainted with the original papers, and have read through them, and I believe this to be a fair precis of the papers themselves. 35. The Chairman?^ You give them as your statement ?—Yes. 36. Then I may take them as evidence by you ?—Yes ; but the precis is not my own, but has been made by the clerk of the Committee of the Legislative Council. 37. The presumption is, I suppose, Mr. Lewis, that Mr. Eees would defend those prisoners I —l presume so. I may mention that I was not aware at all that Mr. Eees came into the matter. The first

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