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I.—3a

28. Was Hekiera Tamaho ?—Yes. 29. And Poraone ?—Yes. 30. Was not one Clindon there ?—He might have been; Ido not remember. 81. And Ned Howe ?—Yes; but he took no part in the proceedings. 32. Was Eobert Flood there? —I do not know. 33. Do you know that there were about twenty people there ?—Not quite, I think. 34. Did I not say to the interpreter that I had gone round to see all the Natives, and that I collected them there to talk about the land, and to buy it ? They were scattered over a district of 150 miles ?—You did. 35. And that anything said before would have nothing to do with the purchase ?—I do not remember your saying that.' 36. Did I not say to Waaka, " Here are the other chiefs, and now is the time to commence operations " ?—Yes. 37. Did you not say that Waaka, being the oldest man, should do all the talk—should be the spokesman ?—Yes. 38. And that Waaka said, " Let you [the witness] do the talking" ? —Yes. 39. Did they not all agree then for 4s. an acre ? —4s. 6d. 40. Did they not then agree to take 4s. ?—No. I made a demand then to you to pay us ss. an acre, and you said, " Let us split the difference, and I will give you 4s. 6d. " Our signing the deed is evidence that we agreed to accept that money. 41. And that you were satisfied with it ? —Yes, we were satisfied. 42. After that you signed the deed and got your money? The Chairman : I do not like to interrupt you, but I think a great deal of this evidence has no bearing at all on the case. What you are now asking about is not disputed at all. He has said, in his evidence, that they were perfectly satisfied with the 4s. 6d. until they heard of Eaiha getting her money. Mr. Lundon : She got that three or four months afterwards. He has put a lot in evidence that I have had nothing whatever to do with. lam here to answer that petition, and nothing else. The Chairman : lam merely reminding you that in the cross-examination of the witness you should waste the time of the Committee as little as possible. I shall give you every opportunity to elicit any information from the Natives; but Ido not think the information yoii are getting from this witness now has any bearing on the question whatever. 43. Mr. Lundon (to witness).] Is that land good land?—lt is ordinary land: good and bad. Some of it is covered with kauri. 44. Will you state when that offer of 10s. an acre was made for it ?—I do not know exactly when that offer was made ; it was some time ago—several years ago. 45. Why did not they take it?—We held out for the pound at that time. 46. Did you consider that it was worth a pound ?—Why should we be debarred from asking what we thought a good price for the land? We wanted to get as much as possible. 47. Did you ever get more for land in that district than 4s. 6d. an acre? —I do not know. 48. In your evidence yesterday, you state that Millar put the money into your hands? —Yes. 49. And that I snapped it out of your hand?— Yes ; you held out your hand, and said, " Give that money to me," and I made no objection. I thought it was part of the routine of the performance. 50. You are quite satisfied I asked you to give me the money?— Yes, I am positive. 51. In your evidence you state you only signed the document in Millar's office with a stamp on it, and perhaps you might have signed the deed?— Yes, I signed the receipt, and I signed the deed. 52. Did you sign only one deed ? —I fancy I only signed one. 53. Did not you sign more receipts than one ? —I said that I signed two receipts. 54. If I say you signed four I would be saying that which is not correct ? The Chairman: Ido not think that follows. Ido not think that is exactly a fair question to ask. 55. Mr. Lundon.~\ Ido not care much about it. [To witness :] Did you sign these papers in Millar's office ?—Yes. 56. Do you recollect before you went into Millar's office going into Eobert Cochrane's office with other owners ? —I remember going to Cochrane's house. 57. Not his house, his office?—Ho has an office in his house. 58. The other owners were with him ? —I think I went by myself. 59. Did you not then sign the document for me to act as your agent ?—I do not remember ever having signed such a document. 60. Did Eobert Cochrane translate a document to that effect ?—No ; not one of us, the owners of that land, had any desire that you should act as our agent. We merely looked upon you as the officer of the Government. 61. Hon. Mr. C adman.~\ The Chairman asked you yesterday were you not a Native assessor? — Yes. 62. And also asked you if you signed a document in the Maori language without reading it ? Hon. Mr. Carroll : Ask him anything that he has not already been questioned about. It might save time. Mr. Lundon (to witness).] Did you sign a document in Maori making me to be your agent in Cochrane's office ?—I believe I signed the document agreeing to sell for 4s. 6d. an acre—-that such document was explained to us, but we never agreed that you should be our agent, because we considered that you were the Government officer, and acting for the Government.