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and the proposals of the directors which will then be submitted to them. You have already by a very large majority agreed to carry on the business and pay up to 9s. per share. Mr. Gallan : I only represent myself, but at the same time I would point out that Mr. Bevan is going into a number of charges which do not appear in the petition. He has stated there something in connection with some director that he got £4,000 from the company. If this had been put in the petition it would have possibly led to the other directors being here. My short point is this : Is it fair for Mr. Bevan to make charges without putting them in the petition ? Mr. Bevan : I maintain this comes under the heading of paragraph 3, " That your petitioners have been greatly deceived by the directors' and manager's reports from time to time on the improving prospects of the association, when as a matter of fact the losses were multiplying and the nature of the business was of a most unsound and disastrous character." The Chairman : There is something in Mr. Callan's objection. I should have stopped him if he had mentioned the name without your concurrence. This Committee, however, does not stop at nice legal points ; but it wants to arrive at an equitable and general conclusion on the whole thing. Mr. Gallan : I think the name should bo given, in justice to the other directors, but I think the whole of the charges should have appeared in the petition in the first instance to have enabled those interested to become fully cognisant of them. It does not touch me at all, but I think it is hardly fair to other members of the Board. Mr. Bevan contended that the matter was touched on in a general way in a circular which he produced. Mr. Gallan said that the fact of its being a circular was not a proof of the charge. The Chairman replied that they could consider the matter of the £4,000 in a general way in connection with Mr. Bevan's statement, but that it need not necessarily form a factor in their ultimate deliberations. Mr. O'Began : Are the directors going to attend ? The Chairman said that he had received the following telegram that morning : — "J. Joyce, Esq., Chairman, Public Petitions A to L Committee, House of Bepresentatives, " Wellington. " Thanks for telegram. Allegations contained therein do not concern me, as matters referred to were prior to my joining company. Would like to have been present, but notice too short to permit arriving in time. " Andrew Maxwell, " Late Manager Equitable, Dunedin." Mr. Callan said he had been instructed to employ counsel to represent Messrs. Meenan, Hazlett, Guthrie, and Sinclair, but that he had had no communications on the subject from Messrs. Cargill, Hogg, and Grigg. Mr. Bevan : Adverting to Mr. Maxwell's circular to shareholders, he says : " You have already by a very large majority agreed to carry on the business, and pay up to 9s. per share. There was only one thing wanting to absolutely insure the ultimate success of the association, and that was the cordial support of the shareholders. Given time, I have never had the least doubt about the future; but you will admit that the management was entitled to expect the support of the shareholders in every way, and without this the task was rendered much more difficult. In the face of the agreement to continue, and the fact that the shareholders have only had before them the results of eight months of the new management, does it not seem extraordinary that the section above referred to should so strongly advocate winding-up ? I leave you to draw your own conclusions, and counteract the injury which is done.—Andeew Maxwell, General Manager." Mr. Maxwell emphatically denies that Sir Bobert Stout's opinion had been asked for, and I therefore wish to give the answer of a number of shareholders in the public Press to his denial. It is signed by myself as chairman of the meeting. He refers to the meeting, and it could be proved we made no such request at all. The following letter appeared in the West Coast Times of 10th November, 1890 (it was also sent to the Otago Daily Times and the Post, Duneclin). [Appendix B.] Mr. Gallan : If you admit this evidence there is no doubt you should have taken written statements. This is evidence of Hokitika shareholders about a certain fact which you allow to come before the Committee by letter. The Chairman : The practice is to admit evidence which may be fairly assumed to have come to the knowledge of those who are giving their testimony. I understand this appeared in the West Coast paper and the Otago Daily Times. We shall be able to discriminate. The functions of parliamentary Committees is to get the whole of the evidence they can; and when you speak of evidence it is not evidence as strictly obtained in our Courts of law. Mr. Bevan: I will not vouch that it appeared in the Otago Daily Times, because I have not got a copy of that paper, but copies were sent to the Otago Daily Times and the Evening Star, Dunedin, to my knowledge. I wish now to affirm the truth of the allegation appearing in clause 4 of my petition, also that of clause 5, and I hereby append a copy of the published statement mentioned therein in support thereof [see Appendix CJ. In support of clause 6, I append the balance-sheet of the company from December, 1883, to the sth March, 1891. I affirm the correctness of sections 7 and Bof the petition. In regard to clause 9, I will produce the prospectus as an exhibit, of which I would just like to extract a paragraph: " Economy and co-operation will be important leading features in the management of the association, and these are features which cannot fail to insure success, especially as a fair business will be confined to the Colony of New Zealand, and therefore under the immediate control of the directors." That is the prospectus, signed by the interim secretary, Mr. Kirkcaldie. Mr. Callan : About that £4,000 —may I ascertain the name of the director ? Mr. Bevan : This is a copy of the document. I got it indirectly from the office. We had to get our information in that way; we could get it in no other.