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of your inquiries and which you consider should be investigated in connection therewith., and upon any matters affecting the premises which you consider should be brought to the attention of the Government : And We do hereby appoint you, the said Ronald Hugh White to be Chairman of the said Commission : And for the better enabling you to carry these presents into effect you are hereby authorized and empowered to make and conduct any inquiry under these presents at such time and place as you deem expedient, with power to adjourn from time to time and place to place as you think fit, and so that these presents shall continue in force, and the inquiry may at any time and place be resumed although not regularly adjourned from time to time or from place to place : And you are hereby strictly charged and directed that you shall not at any time publish or otherwise disclose save to His Excellency the Governor-General, in pursuance of these presents, or by His Excellency's direction, the contents of any report so made or to be made by you, or any evidence or information obtained by you in the exercise of the powers hereby conferred upon you except such evidence or information as is received in the course of a sitting open to the public : And it is hereby declared that the powers hereby conferred shall be exercisable notwithstanding the absence at any time of any one or more of the members hereby appointed so long as the Chairman, or a member deputed by the Chairman to act in his stead, and two other members be present and concur in the exercise of such powers : And We do further ordain that you have liberty to report your proceedings and findings under this Our Commission from time to time if you shall judge it expedient so to do : And, using all due diligence, you are required to report to His Excellency the Governor-General in writing under your hands and seals not later than the first day of March, one thousand nine hundred and forty-eight, your findings and opinions on the matters aforesaid, together with such recommendations as you think fit to make in respect thereof: And, lastly, it is hereby declared that these presents are issued under the authority of the Letters Patent of His late Majesty dated the eleventh day of May, one thousand nine hundred and seventeen, and under the authority of and subject to the provisions of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1908, and with the advice and consent of the Executive Council of the Dominion of New Zealand. In witness whereof We have caused this Our Commission to be issued and the Seal of Our Dominion of New Zealand to be hereunto

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