i.-iA.

20

1 , , a. peioe.J

Thomas George Price sworn and examined. (No. 4.) 1. The Chairman.] What is your occupation?—l am an architect. 2. Where do you reside?— Auckland. 3. Sir John Findlay.] You propose to read a synopsis of your evidence, 1 understand? — Yes. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, on several occasions I invited Mr. Gaudin to lunch with me at the Commercial Travellers' Club, Auckland, of which both he and I are members. Mr. Gaudin afterwards received a letter from the committee asking him not to use the club until the question of his membership had been considered by the committee. I was informed that several members had written to the committee saying that they would resign their membership if he were allowed in the club. Both he and I are members of the Carlton Bowling Club, Auckland. He was the president for three years—a most popular president too. But the members of this club and another club in Auckland have told our present president that if Mr. Gaudin goes on to the green they will pick up their bowls and walk off the green. This all arises from the cruel sentence of five years' imprisonment, and his incarceration in the criminal gaol at Mount Eden; and although the sentence was reduced to six months' detention no reason for this has been given to the public, many of whom still feel that he lias done something othei than that which has already been made public. The stigma of treason still rests on this man, and on behalf of the Gaudin Defence Committee I respectfully ask honourable gentlemen present to remove this. If this is not done he will be driven out of his native land. I have no hesitation in saying that there is no household in the British Empire more intensely loyal than Gaudin's, and he has a letter of mine, written long before his arrest, in which I told him so. The Chairman here read tho following letter : — " Auckland Commercial Travellers and Warehousemen's Association, "Durham Street, Auckland, 20th August, 1915. " Mr. F. E. N. Gaudin, Bayswater. " Dear Sir, — " I have to acknowledge the receipt of the sum of £2 25., for which .1 enclose receipt herewith. I have been instructed to inform you that the matter of your membership is to come up before the general committee at their first meeting in September, and that in the meantime the committee will be pleased if you will refrain from making use of the club. "Yours faithfully, " W. S. Cooper, Secretary." 4. Sir John Findlay.] From your knowledge of Auckland and the Auckland public, you are able to say that the impression there is that Mr. Gaudin has been guilty of war treason : you can assure the Committee of this? —That is so. 5. And he is shunned? —Yes. And a common expression when I meet my own friends in the street, is, " I am very much surprised that you are the secretary of the Gaudin Defence Committee."

Thomas John Collerton sworn and examined. (No. 5.) 1. The Chairman.] What is your occupation?—l am a Civil servant. 2. And your address? —Buckle Street, Wellington. The first thing I "want, to mention is the bringing of gold from Samoa to Dr. Schultz. There is no mention of this on the file, but I know that this-concession was granted by His Excellency the Governor. I know this because three sums of £50 were advanced to Corporal Hirsch, Mr. Hansen, and another man by the Government of Fiji, on the understanding that the money would be collected by the Government of Fiji from the Government of New Zealand —the New Zealand Government to collect it from the D.H.P.G. Company at Apia. 3. These would be the subject of any charge against him?— Well, these are the ones that had not passed through the Post Office. There is one other letter which has been lost, addressed to Major Kay, which contained a number of surcharged Samoan postage-stamps. Mr. Gaudin considered that he was personally responsible for the value of the stamps, and the Defence Department went thoroughly into the matter, and Mr. Gaudin was informed —I think through Mr. McCallum—that Mr. Gaudin could not be held responsible for them. He was carrying them for an officer of the Expeditionary Force, who should not have sent them in the way lie did. I do now know that I have anything else to bring out. 4. Sir John Findlay.] The effect of what you have stated with regard to the payment of "old to German prisoners in New Zealand is this : that money due by merchants in Samoa was made available for German prisoners in New Zealand?—No, I could not say that. The money that was held by the D.H.P.G. Company, as far as I know from the official record, was paid to that company by Dr. Schultz. 5. But yet the money was in Samoa? —Yes. 6. And as it was in Samoa it is equivalent to saying it was made available to Dr. Schultz in New Zealand? —All I know of is the £50. 7. That is what it amounts to? —Yes. 8. When it is avened by Mr. Gaudin that he wanted to pay to Colonel Logan in Samoa the gold he collected and get its equivalent made up to him in New Zealand, it was asking in effect for what had been granted to a German?— Yes, but under different principles. 9. The effect is the same as far as that principle is concerned—the payment of the money in Samoa and receiving its equivalent here: the cases are identical? —Yes. 10 Is what you have said all that the Department desires to say in reply to our case?— That is all I was directed to say by my immediate superior. My instructions were that I was to tiring the Government files down.