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take some action that you might not like." I was very angry at the time, and scarcely know what I said. Sergeant Gilbert was sent for into the office. I had never previously spoken to Sergeant Gilbert on the subject of this letter and report. When I got Sergeant Gilbert and Captain Messenger together, I said to Captain Messenger, "You had better ask Sergeant Gilbert about it." Captain Messenger said, " You can put what questions you like to him." I laid the old deed on the table, and asked Sergeant Gilbert, " Have you over seen that document before? " He looked at it and said, " Yes, it is your old lease." I said, " Where did you see it? " He said, " Captain Messenger had it when the lease was signed in the presence of us all in the whare." He said, "I saw you take it out of your pocket and give it to Captain Messenger." He said, " I heard you and Captain Messenger discuss as to the boundary being at Totoro, and then bringing it down to Mangapohue." Captain Messenger denied ever having seen it, but Sergeant Gilbert said, " You did see it, sir." Having heard Captain Messenger's evidence read over to me, I reaffirm what I have just said. In Sergeant Gilbert's presence, Captain Messenger again said something to the effect that Shore should have been in the lease. At the time Mr. Holmes sent the telegram which has been before referred to to Waitara, Shore spoke to me and asked me if my name alone was in the lease. I said, " Yes, of course it is. Ido not know what right you or any other person has to inquire of me." I said, " You made a fool of mo and wronged me for so many years. You could not live at Mokau yourself. You even applied to the Government to give you a piece of laud on the north bank to live on." That was in December, 1879, that he asked the Government to let him have some land on the north bank of the Mokau, as the Natives were putting him off the south bank ; but he did not get it. I further said to him, " You asked Heremia the other day to put some of your children's names in the title to the block. You also asked Eewi the same; which I thought was a very improper thing to do." I said, " I severed connection with you long ago, and want no more to do with you." This was before the lease was signed, but while the matter was in course of negotiation. Shore was present when we got the lease signed. Before the lease was signed I saw he was very down-hearted, and I said 'to him, " When the lease is signed we will fix matters again if you will run straight ; but you have no claim of any description, and if you were a man of means I would come on you for damages." While the lease was being signed he advised lots of Natives to sign it. George Stockman was there, advising the Natives not to sign it, and he and Shore had words about it—in fact, he assisted me to get the lease signed. After the lease was signed this matter came up again between me and Shore. I said to him, "We can settle nothing here, but you had better come down with me to New Plymouth and see a lawyer." We went together, and in New Plymouth I asked him to "whom we should go. "Oh !" he said, "to Mr. Standish." We went upstairs together. The object was to see what Shore's position was, if he had any, in the matter. He told his story to Mr Standish ; and Mr. Standish said, " Hold on. What position am lin between you? This is like giving an opinion to both." We said, " That is what we want you to do." Mr. Standish said, " Did you not undertake to get a title within a limited time? " Mr. Shore replied that there was something about that. Mr. Standish then said, " Did not you and your son have some mutual understanding with Mr. Jones that you would have nothing further to do with each other?" and he said, " Yes." Mr. Standish then heard my story, and told Shore in my presence that he had neglected every opportunity; that he was not a business man; and that he did not see he had a claim in the matter at all. Shore was annoyed with Mr. Standish, and said something about Freemasonry, as I understood. We went out of the office together, and I said to Shore, " You come and help me to get the signatures and get the lease completed,'and it shall cost you nothing; only yon pay Mr. Grace his costs to come here and settle the matter, and the half of the expenses which had been incurred in getting the lease." I said, " I will then give you a share in it." He turned round and said, " I will work against you and have you out of it." I said, " Don't be foolish. You are getting an offer you are not entitled to. There is not one man in a thousand would give it to you after the years you have been serving me like this." I said, " Don't be foolish, and I will give you six months to think over it and to come along and work with me to get the matter completed." I did not ask him to find any money, as I knew he had none. I meant that if the thing was a success his share of the costs should be deducted from the profits ; he said positively he would work against me ; and from that day he started to do so with the Natives. It is not true, as stated by Shore, that I instigated the Natives to drive his cattle to the pound at Urenui. It was done by To Oro, as I believe, to get rid of Shore. I asked them not to do it, and I wrote a letter with a view to trying to arrange Shore's difficulties (of which I produce a copy). At the expiration of the six mouths I went to Shore. Patterson was with me. (I was then living at Mokau.) I said to him, " I made a certain proposal to you, without prejudice, about six months ago have you anything to say to ma?" He said, " Not yet I have not: I shall have when I think fit." I said, " Then, Shore, there is an end of that." 1 then said, " I will now make you another offer wftJfrout prejudice—that is, if you will work with me to complete the negotiations with the Natives for the lease of the block, I will let you have a few thousand acres of Totoro land for your cattle (which was open fern-land), and you will do better than I will out of the concern." He said, "No, I will not." I said, "We will have nothing more to do with each other." Mr. Patterson then said, " I never saw such a fool in my life." With reference to the evidence given by Mr. Stockman, 1 wish to make some explanation. The statement made that we disagreed about the share of George Shore's widow is untrue. Such a conversation as he refers to never occurred. One day while at Mokau I spoke to Mr. Stockman, sen. I said it was time an end was put to this. I was getting tired of these negotiations, and his son was there making mischief. Stockman, sen., then said, "If you don't sign a document to give me a double share in the thing, you won't get it at all." (This was long before the new