F—No. 3

AGAINST MR. C. W. RICHMOND.

7

production of these documents and while I deny that I made any charges or cast an imputation either upon the Government or settlers of Taranaki, I do candidly avow that this correspondence has strengthened and confirmed the suspicion which I had long entertained that undue pressure had been brought to bear upon the Government for acquisition of that land, I go further and say that that undue pressure was not merely on the part of Taranaki Settlers but I believe also on the part of my honourable friend the Colonial Treasurer. " Sir, I believe according to the terms of written agreement with Carrington the Colonial Treasurer pledged to acquire that land at Waitara, now take these facts, Parris '58 writes to the Bishop that combination to exterminate King for lands on Waitara, that Colonial Treasurer, (bands or binds) himself with purchase of land for the New Zealand Company, he was (band or binds) himself to get possession of land at Taranaki and from after negotiation conspiracy had went to Taranaki and Colonial Officer, and three or 4 months negotiation for Teira's Block, I can come to no other conclusion that present ministry .in some way responsible for the conspiracy, responsible some way for the conspiracy Parris charged ; that not only responsible but themselves in conspiracy, and that undue pressure both by settlers of Taranaki and Colonial Treasurer." 17. Mr. Speaker.] How long was it after taking these- short-hand notes that you wrote out the reports for the paper?—l began writing the report out on Friday or Saturday, and it appeared in Tuesday's paper. 18. Mr. Chairman of Committees desired to have the following ipsissima verba from the short hand notes: —■ " Sir, with respect to the speech which I delivered at Wellington, if Honbl. Members will peruse it they will find that I simply referred to that letter stating that it contained an admission by Parris that had been solicited to join in conspiracy to get possession of that much coveted land. Sir far from having been guilty to those that read [it or which] of his statement that on contrary the statement really appears from that letter is more grave and serious nature than statements which I imputed to it. I stated that they solicited join conspiracy, but he says that existed a conspiracy on part of settlers of Waitara to exterminate King to get possession of his land. Sir the charge is not made by me hut charge is made Parris; and it is Parris charge the Taranaki settlers combined to exterminate Wm. King in order to get possession of his land to carry out plan of Turton." (Then follows Sir, &c.) The witness here stated that the above notes were made solely for the use of the Newspaper, and not with any view of using them for purposes of evidence hereafter, otherwise the catch words would have been filled in and generally the words more closely taken. 19. Mr. Fitzherbert.] Will you state whether you wrote out the report of Dr. Featherston's speech on Saturday or a later day ?—I think I may state I wrote out this speech on Monday. 20. Did you vary the order of writing out the speeches ?—They were written consecutively with one exception. Moved by Mr. Fitzherbert, That this Committee do adjourn until To-morrow, Thursday, at 10 o'clock a.m. Agreed to.

Mr. R. J. Creighton,

31 July, 1861,

Thursday, August Ist, 186U Committee met pursuant to adjournment. Present:— Mr. Cracroft Wilson, C.8., Mr. Creyke, " Chairman of Committees, " Crosbie Ward, " Mr. Fitzherbert, The Hon. Mr. Henderson, i • Mr. Weld in the Chair. Minutes of last meeting read and confirmed. Mr. R. J. Creighton further examined. Answer to No. 20 in continuation. When I finished writing out the speeches, I returned to Mr. Weld's speech, and wrote in the sentences, introducing the letters in the correspondence. My reason for so doing was that when I - began my report I was not in possession of copies of the letters; with this exception the report was written consecutively. 21. Mr. Fitzherbert.] You state that your short-hand notes were somewhat imperfect in one part, and that there you were obliged to trust to your memory—will you particularly specify that part ? I refer particularly to the recital of the circumstances by Dr. Featherston, which led him