13

I.—6b

The particular portion where the alteration is made I am willing to have placed before the Committee, and the Under-Secretary is now at liberty to produce it. Mr. G. Hutchison : I understand that the manuscript is not to be produced; that the Minister declines. The Chairman : That is the answer. Hon. Mr. Seddon : Unless it is this particluar slip. 272. Mr. G. Hutchison : Having failed to get the manuscript of the Statement I wanted, I will take the bit of it I can get. Will you produce the part of the manuscript the Minister is willing to have produced ? Hon. Sir B. Stout: I understood the Minister was not willing to have the manuscript produced—only the printed slip. Hon. Mr. Seddon : The printed slip with corrections. The Chairman: It is not decided for Mr. Hutchison to ask the question. Mr. G. Hutchison ■ I am asking the question to get it on record. Mr. Blotu : This is the manuscript of that paragraph. Hon. Mr. Seddon : I assent to its production. Mr. Blow : I produce the original draft of the concluding paragraph, which the Minister has now authorised me to do. [Exhibit 1 produced.] 273. Mr. G. Hutchison: Is it in your handwriting?—ln the handwriting of the departmental shorthand-writer. 274. And you refuse to produce any other parts ? I want it definite. Under authority, you refuse to produce the manuscript of the first part ? —I have already stated that it appears to me that it would be a most improper course for me to produce it. 275. That is most irrelevant and improper. It is not what a witness thinks, but what he is required to do. I must go through this form of asking you. Will you produce the manuscript of the first portion of the Public Works Statement as printed ? You naturally would not do it on your own responsibility. Mr. Guinness : I think it is right, Mr. Chairman, for members of the Committee to interpose and ask you to rule that question as irrelevant. It has nothing whatever to do with the question remitted to us to consider. Mr. G. Hutchison: I ask the witness to produce the first page of the Statement, and I submit it is a question that ought to be allowed, and it is a matter of right that it be put on the shorthand notes. I submit, however, it is a proper question to put, because the first part of this Statement is in the same strain as the conclusion. In it there is this passage : " that the expenditure thereon " —that is, public works —" has been less during the past year than it has been for several years past," a passage which, as far as I understand English, is supported by the printed figures—before they were altered —in the concluding part of the Statement. They are linked together and have associations, and I think the first part is unmeaning without the wrong figures in the concluding paragraph. The Chairman : I regard the draft copy as a private copy, and not a record. Mr. G. Hutchison: The Minister has a right to refuse it, I concede. But the question is raised, have I a right to ask for it ? Hon. Mr. Seddon : No. By the order of reference—and I would ask a ruling on this phase of the question—the question before the Committee is as to whether I, as Minister, had made any alterations. If the question is put to witness, " Were any alterations made in the first part of the Public Works Statement," he answers, "No, there have been no alterations." If there have been no alterations the question was not remitted. Hon. Sir B. Stout: It does not seem to me—l am putting my interpretation upon it—that, as this has not been altered, we need go into it at all. Mr. G. Hutchison : In this letter which is printed, and which has been referred to, Mr. Blow makes a point of that: " the concluding part of the Statement was written shortly before it was tabled." In that part are the wrong figures. That statement of Mr. Blow's leads us to infer that the rest of the Statement was written without reference to the concluding part. That is the point Mr. Blow makes, and which Mr. Seddon appears to adopt. Now, there is a reference in the first part of the Statement, which, on the face of it, must have been written also at the same time, or upon the same figures as those in the conclusion. It is for the purpose of testing the accuracy of that Mr. Guinness : The accuracy of what ? Hon. Sir B. Stout: Apparently the figures appearing at the end of the Statement were given to the Minister by Mr. Blow, who made a blunder; and I suppose this was written on the assumption that the expenditure was only £290,000 instead of £390,000. Mr. G. Hutchison : That is exactly opposed to the explanation of Mr. Blow. Hon. Mr. Seddon : You say, " which Mr. Seddon appears to adopt." Mr. Seddon has indicated nothing of the kind. I have asked no questions yet, and it is not fair to me to make a statement of that kind. The Chairman : My view is that any alteration in the phraseology of the first portion of this Statement is not within the order of reference. There is no connection whatever with the alteration of the figures. Mr. Guinness : Therefore the question is irrelevant and cannot be put. 276. Mr. G. Hutchison: What was the next stage, Mr. Blow, this Statement assumed after this manuscript ? —lt went to the Printing Office and was duly printed. 277. Have you the proof received from the Printing Office ?—Yes. 278. Will you produce it?— Certainl y—not of the whole statement, but, if the Premier approves the production of the proof of that paragraph, I can produce it