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grounds of a simpler nature, but the company broke up. At the same time, lam not prepared to say that there was anything antagonistic to the Natives or the true principles of colonization in the existence of the New Zealand Company : they fell through difficulties about land purchases. 755. You are aware that there was a company formed on the East Coast, that is, a land company: do you think that has been a commercial success ?—I am not prepared to say. Ido not know, in fact, whether commercial success comes within the scope of this inquiry. 756. We are endeavouring to solve a difficulty, so that we may find a way, if we can, by which the Natives may dispose of their land to advantage: a great number of Natives do hand, or have handed, over their land to that company : do you know the circumstances of that company, or can you inform us whether the Natives, in handing over their land to such a company, are likely to be benefited ?—I do not know anything about it. I know there is a company, but Ido not know anything of its circumstances. 757. My object is to ascertain whether it is "better to sell to individuals or to companies; or what would be the best plan. I wish to find out some way by which the Natives would be able to get a fair price for their land: that is the object I have in bringing this view of the matter before you, so that you may give us your opinion whether it would be a good plan for the Maori to hand over his land to a company to sell for him ?—I presume you mean whether it would bo a good thing for the interest of the Native ? 758. That was my meaning : do you think so ?—My answer to all questions of that sort would be this : I think that the Maori, having got the title to his land, should be absolutely free to do what he likes with it. 759. I want to ask you, during the time when you were Chief Judge, whether you were in the habit of sitting at the hearing of ordinary cases in the Court, and sitting again at the rehearing of these cases? —I do not remember any case in which I sat as a Court of Appeal. There may have been such a case under some pressure of the business of the Court: for the work was so great, and the men so few, that sometimes one was obliged to do things he did not like. Sittings of the Court, which we calculated to last a fortnight, would sometimes last three months. Under pressure of necessity I might have done what I never contemplated doing. Ido not remember such a case. I do not say there was not such a case, but Ido not remember it. Ido not think there was. Ido not think I would have done it if I could have helped it. 760. Are you aware that the great burden of many of the petitions which have been presented to Parliament from Natives, and brought before this Committee, this last year or two, have been in reference to rehearings ? Now, it is evident there is some weakness in that respect at the present time :is there not ?—I do not think that Parliament will ever get out of the difficulty without constituting the Supreme Court to be the authority for a rehearing, upon affidavit, in the usual way. Practically, when Mr. EitzGerald and myself put in the**clause about rehearing, it was to provide for nothing but unforeseen difficulties —a swollen river, for instance, or a failure of proper notice : it was done to provide for the failure of the existing facilities for coming to the Court under unforeseen circumstances. It was never intended to provide a Court of Appeal from erroneous decisions. But it has nothing to do with it what our meaning was. 761. Do you think that the Supreme Court would be the best jurisdiction?—l see no difficulty in it, except the one of expense. But that difficulty could not be very great. I suppose that appeals would be more numerous than they used to be. Lawyers are now banished from the Court, and many points that would be settled have to remain over. There must be dissatisfaction, more or less, so long as this is the case. I think the Supreme Court would be the best appellate tribunal that you could find. Even as it is now, in many cases you see the Supreme Court resorted to, and the practice is becoming very general, even long after Europeans have got into possession, which is a much more serious thing. 762. Is it not a fact that, in the good old times, when Maning, Munro, Eogan, and yourself sat in the Court without any lawyers at all, you had not all the difficulty that is now found to surround these cases ?—I do not remember any such time. One of the first cases we tried was the Orakei case. I think there were seven lawyers in that. The property at the time was valued at £50,000. I think we came to a right decision. 763. I have read an important decision of yours, in pamphlet form, which, I think, you published : there were few lawyers when that judgment was delivered ?—Sometimes there were none at all present. 764. That was the rule, I think ?—No, not as a rule : in Taranaki there were always lawyers in Auckland and Cambridge there used to be Mr. Wynn and others. 765. I was referring to Courts which were held in country districts—in the Kaipara and other places. I have attended some of these Courts, and I never saw a lawyer : they never thought of bringing in lawyers to conduct cases and work them up ?—As to Kaipara, it was extremely simple; that was the easiest district in Auckland. 766. Then, you think that it is a good plan and an advantage to have lawyers attending the Court?— l think so, and the cheapest in the end. I take fox granted, of course, that the Court would exercise its authority. It is disagreeable to have to make a reference of this sort; but I withdrew permission, on several occasions, from lawyers, and would not allow them to appear. That is a painful thing to do, but it has to be done sometimes. If you were to allow lawyers to appear in the Native Land Court as a right, the same as in the Supreme Court, that would be objectionable. The Court ought not only to have power to regulate its practice in this respect, but it should have large powers,over costs, and those powers should be exercised. Here is a point at which I think the Commissioner should have power to intervene. 767. Have .you not heard of cases in which lawyers have been for weeks and months attending the Court and receiving fees at so much per day for attending the Court?— Yes. 768. Is it not at all likely that, when there are so few lawyers that understand the Native