E. SOHWABE.]

19

I.—B.

17. You have knowledge that a witness on that occasion declined to answer a question, and was fined £500 ?—Yes. 18. And that fact notwithstanding, you persist in the attitude you feel yourself called upon to take up ?—I regret that I must.

APPENDICES.

APPENDIX A. Mr. G. Hogben, Secretary for Education, to the Chairman, Privileges Committee, House of Eepresentatives. Sm, — Education Department, Wellington, 12th September, 1903. I have the honour to inform you that, together with the Assistant Secretary of the Department, I have made careful investigation into the matter of the distribution of the confidential papers prepared by this Department for the Education Committee, and beg to report as follows : — 1. Memorandum on Training Colleges. —This is a typewritten reproduction of an ordinary departmental communication to the Minister, dated, as you will observe, 21st July, 1902. The clerk who did the work was told to make about thirty copies. There was no special secrecy enjoined in regard to it, and no reason for recording precisely what was done. The evidence is that thirty-four copies were taken, and that number is accounted for as follows: Twenty-seven copies were sent to the Committee, and seven are still in the possession of the Department. 2. Draft Regulations for Inspection and Examination of Schools. —These have been in type for some months, and up to the date on which I received the Minister's instructions to submit them to the Committee they were in slip form. Fifty-two copies were printed with the superscription " Confidential draft," and are accounted for as follows : Twenty-seven were sent to the Committee, one was handed to the clerk for the use of the Right Hon. the Premier in the meeting of the Committee on the 10th instant, and twenty-four are still in the possession of the Department. 3. Draft Regulations for Examination and Classification of Teachers. —These have been in type since June, and for issue to the Committee fifty copies were printed with the superscription " Confidential draft." Twenty-seven were sent to the Committee and twenty-three are still in the possession of the Department. 4. Secondary Schools Bill. —The Crown Law Office ordered fifty copies with the superscription " Confidential draft," and on receiving the parcel from the printer the officer in charge took out two copies and sent the rest, without counting them, to this office. They were not counted here. Forty-five copies are accounted for as follows: Twenty-seven were sent to the Committee, and eighteen are still in the possession of this Department. Assuming that forty-eight were received, this leaves three copies unaccounted-for. The Bill consists of only one sheet, and it is possible that in the folding two sheets were in one or two instances put together. This had actually happened in one case in which I asked for a copy of the Bill. I have no reason whatever to think that the ordinary confidence observed in the departmental work has been broken in regard to any of these papers, or that any copies were obtained from the Department otherwise than in the manner specified. I have, &c, G. Hogben, Secretary for Education.

"LYTTELTON TIMES."

APPENDIX B. Hon. A. B. Guinness, Wellington, to Mr. Samuel Saundees, Christchurch. Sm, — Speaker's Eooms, Wellington, 10th September, 1903. I have the honour to inform you that the House of Representatives has this day declared by resolution that the publication of a leading article in the Lyttelton Times of Bth September instant, headed " Secondary Education," which contains information now confidentially before a Committee of the House, is a breach of the privileges of the House, and I am directed to ask you to explain at your earliest convenience as to how you came into possession of the information contained in that article. I have, &c, Samuel Saunders, Esq., A. R. Guinness, Speaker. Editor, Lyttelton Times, Christchurch. [Similar letter sent to James Clunie Wilkin, Esq., Publisher, Lyttelton Times, Christchurch.]

Mr. J. C. Wilkin, Christchurch, to Hon. A. R. Guinness, Wellington. Sib, — Lyttelton Times Office, Christchurch, 15th September, 1903. I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 10th instant, and, in reply, beg to state that I have no knowledge of how the information contained in the article referred to in the resolution of the House was obtained by the editor. The literary columns of the Lyttelton Times are under the sole control of that gentleman, and I have referred your letter to him. I have, &c, J. C. Wilkin, Manager and Publisher, Lyttelton Times Company (Limited). Hon. A. E. Guinness, Speaker, House of Representatives, Wellington.