15

I.—lc

293. Did I not inform you that properties of extreme value in the middle of the city were the subject of contention in that Court all the time I was here? —I have no recollection of it. 294. If I sent you such a telegram it would be in your office ? —Tes. 295. Properties in this city near the gas-works and at Pipitea would be of large value, and would be contended by counsel, even if they were succession claims, would they not?—l have no knowledge at all of it. I never received reports on it of any description, so Mr. Dickey says. 296. Did you not receive the awards of the Court ?—I do not recollect. 297. Did you not send them down to me at Tauranga to endorse them ?—I have no recollection at all of it. I can get all information as to it from Auckland for you. 298. At Patiti, are you not aware that I disposed of all the cases on the list ?—I am not. 299. Are you not aw*are that Mr. Sheehan sent me back from Wellington to Tauranga to prevent my going to Wanganui ?—I am not. My interpretation of the law is that if a Minister ordered a Judge contrary to my instructions, the Judge ought not to have obeyed. 300. Tou are aware that I held another commission under the Tauranga Land Act?—Tes. 301. Are you not aware that when I was ordered to Galatea the second time that I was sitting in another Court at Tauranga—that, in fact, I was ordered to be in two places at one time? —No. Do you mean to say that I ordered you to be in two places at one time ? 302. Tes.—Certainly not. 303. Are you not aware that I was in the middle of the Eangiuru case when you ordered me to go to Galatea ? —Tou were ordered to Tauranga on the 29th October, and to Galatea on the 3rd December —that is two months between. If the Court at Tauranga was not finished you ought to have let me know. I was not aware till now that you had not finished. One can never tell beforehand how long a Court will last. I make the best arrangements I can, and if a Court is unusually protracted the Judge should let me know. Sometimes a Court is much shorter than is expected. I fixed a Court at Napier and allowed two months for it, and it was all over in one day. 304. When I did not go to Galatea, did you not order Judge Symonds to go ? —I do not remember. 305. Are you not aware that Symonds did go ?—I cannot remember. Of course if a Court broke down, I should do the best I could to supply it. 306. Are you not aware that I had made application for sick-leave when you ordered me to go to Ohinemuri ?—I am not aware of it. I remember you went to Sydney, but Ido not know when it was. 307. And Ohinemuri is out of the Tauranga District, is it not ?—I have said there are no districts, except such districts as I have established in my book for purposes of convenience. 308. When I held a Court at Tauranga, can you say how many years before the last Court had been held there ?—I do not remember. 309. There were arrears of succession cases at that time, were there not ? —I really cannot tell. 310. At Maketu there were heavy arrears for twelve years, were there not ?—I really do not know. I do not think it is likely, but I do not know. 311. Succession cases are taken first, are they not ?—As a rule. 312. And if there are a great many of them they will delay the Court before it gets to the heavy cases ? — No ; I got through thirty at Waitara in two days, I think. Tou get through them with great speed. It is very seldom one will occupy more than ten minutes. 313. Are you aware that my orders for memorials have been suppressed in your office, and have not been published in the Gazette and the Kahiti Maori? —How do you mean suppressed? 314. Not gazetted like the memorials of other Judges.—l think you will find they are certificates of title. 315. I ordered thirty memorials of ownership. One only has been gazetted. Are you not aware that all the others have been withheld?—l am aware of this: that no difference was made between you and the other Judges. Tou made only one memorial in the two years. 316. Tou are not aware that I ordered thirty memorials of ownership in the two and a half years ? —I am certain you did not. lam sure this return by the Eegistrar is true. I can get particulars of the Court you held after this return was made. 317. Have you not gazetted one of my awards in your own name ?—Not that I am aware of. 318. The Eangiuru memorial of ownership—a property worth £25,000 ; did you not gazette that in your own name ? —That was a rehearing. I sat there several days and made the order myself. That certainly was not your order. 319. That implies I did not make the order?—lt implies that if you did I overruled it. 320. Is it part of your duty to overrule the order of a Judge ?—I can order a re-hearing. I sat there myself and struck out a number of names of minors in the previous list in cases where the parents, and, in some instances, the grandparents, were alive. I began that case myself in 1866 and finished it myself in 1880 or 1881. 321. Should you not have gazetted Eangiuru in my name if I held the Court ?—I say there are no such facts as you state. I cannot answ'er a hypothetical question of that kind, founded on misstatements. The thing is simple enongh. I found the minute made included the names of about fifty minors, while our precedents went in the contrary direction. I told the parties that I would get the matter put right, and I sat myself and finished the business. 322. Were you not then aware that other Judges had made a practice of including minors ?— • Tes; I was. 323. Then all the precedents were not against it? —Of course the precedents were not in all cases. I have always endeavoured to stop it, but sometimes these minors have crept in. Ido not state that as blaming you, but as saying merely that the case required rehearing. 324. Do you not think you may have been deceived when you were told there were minors in that order ?—I may have been mistaken as to some, but I saw some myself who were children, most certainly not six years old.