7

1.—7

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. Saturday, 24th February, 1912. William Ferguson Massey, M.P., in attendance. The Chairman : We are proceeding with the charge with reference to that extract. We want to know if you can facilitate the deliberations of the Committee by informing us what witnesses you have or what evidence you would like called in connection with this matter. Mr. Massey: 1 can hardly do so just at present. 1 wired this morning to the individual who wrote the letter to me asking him to come to Wellington by to-morrow night's train —there is none before that. I asked him to reply urgently to the wire which 1 sent. Until he comes it is quite impossible for me to give you details of what may be necessary. The Chairman: Do you think we ought to send him a summons from the Committee? He may not come for you. Mr. Massey: Oh, yes, he will. There is just this difficulty: he is a man who sometimes has business at Gisborne and sometimes at the Thames, and he may, therefore, be absent from Auckland. If he is in Auckland he will come all right. The Chairman : When do you think he will be here? Mr. Massey: On Monday afternoon at 4 o'clock, all being well. The Chairman: Have you any objection to mentioning his name? Mr. Massey: Oh, yes. [do not want to mention his name till he comes. I propose to give the Committee every assistance, but you will see my difficulty : I do not want to commit the man before he arrives. The Chairman : Any other witnesses? Mr. Massey: There are no other witnesses required that 1 know of. Mr. Reed: You will not know till this man comes? Mr. Massey: No. I have done all that it is possible for me to do up to the present, and until 1 get a wire from him I cannot do any more. The. Chairman: Regarding the letter, are you going to take the "confidential" cover off it? Can you do that, or must you wait till you see him? Mr. Massey: 1 must wait till I see him. The Chairman: Do you wish any evidence called with regard to charge No. 2, regarding Mr. Vigor Brown? Mr. Massey: Only my own, when it is required. The Chairman : Can you suggest that we should call any person I Mr. Massey: Not at present. There is really no more information that 1 can give you until this man arrives. Mr. Russell: The order of reference provides that we have to inquire first of all into the writing and publishing of this letter. I understand that the only witness Mr. Massey proposes to call is the author of the letter. Can he suggest any directions in which the Committee might get evidence, either from this man or through him, as to the truth or otherwise of the charges? For example, is it not possible for the young man and his father who are referred to in the letter to be brought before the Committee? Mr. Massey: I know of no reason why they should not be. Mr. Russell: What I want to get at is whether we cannot go past the author of the letter and, get to the man whom he alleges is the author of the statement. The Chairman : Mr. Massey takes up this position : " I cannot give you any names until the cover of privacy is taken off, and I have got to see, in the meantime, the writer of the letter." Mr. Russell: The point in my mind is this : this is a very important inquiry, and we do not want to be detained here. The House may complete its business on Monday or Tuesday, and we do not want to prolong the inquiry if we can anticipate the matter by getting the people here on Monday night. If Mr. Massey could suggest to his correspondent the desirability of bringing the two authorities referred to —the father and the son —with him on Monday it would expedite matters. Mr. Massey: I hardly think it would be possible to fetch them, unless they are summoned by the Committee. Mr. Russell: And, of course, we cannot get their names until the man arrives? Mr. Massey: No. The Chairman: It is to the interest of the individual who wrote the letter to bring his witnesses to support his statement. Mr. Allen: The trouble is that he may not be able to, and we may have to summon them. Mr. Massey: They may come at his request after he has arrived in Wellington, but I do not think it at all likely that he would be able to get them to leave Auckland without a very much stronger reason than up to the present he has been able to put forward. Mr. Reed: I think Mr. Massey has put it quite clearly : he must wait until this man comes down here. Mr. Massey: I may say that one of them Tarn not acquainted with at all; the other one I have only met once.