73

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reservations by the Government were not too large; or, indeed, were not large enough?—-I can . only answer your question by saying I knew there wasnot a concensus of opinion. 214. Did you not, in point of fact, hold a view favourable to the proposed reservations by the Government until you were retained by the Company?—Oh dear no. 215. Did you offer your services to the Government ?—No. 216. On no occasion?—No ; Mr. Hannan, the Government counsel at Greymouth saw me 217. Was it through Mr. Hannan, solicitor, of Greymouth, you offered your services to the Government ?—No; Mr. Hannan saw me, and I agreed to go with the Government if I got a certain engagement. 218. Were you not first of all asked by Mr. Hannan to go through the Grey Valley reserves on behalf of the Government, without any terms being mentioned ?—No; I told him what my terms were. 219. Did you not, before any terms were mentioned, undertake or agree to go through the Grey Valley reserves with Mr. Gordon, Government Mining Inspector ? —Certainly not. Mr. Hannan saw me about the matter, and I gave him my terms. He partially agreed to them, but I would not go . unless I got a proper engagement. 220. Then you were prepared, if you got your own terms, to give your services to the Government ? —Certainly. Of course, it is my business to give my services if they want a truthful opinion on the reserves. 221. I ask you whether, provided you got your own terms, you did not offer to act on behalf of the Crown ?—lf they agreed to my terms, I offered to report. 222. Did you afterwards see Mr. Hannan and inform him that you had an offer from the company? —Yes ; I saw Mr. Hannan. 223. Did you not then get Mr. Hannan to write out a telegram to Mr. Gordon, who was Mining Inspector on the West Coast, and then forward that telegram to him yourself?— Mr. Hannan wrote it and signed it, and I took it to the telegraph-office. 224. Did you tell Mr. Hannan before sending the telegram that the company had offered you three, guineas a day, with a guarantee of three months, that the offer was open until four o'clock, and that you would rather stay with the Government ?—I said if he paid us as good 225. Was not a telegram sent by him to Mr. Gordon?— Mr. Hannan came to me and wished to secure me as a Government witness, as a Government expert. He asked me whether I was engaged by the company, and I said I had no engagement. He asked me if I had any objection to going on with the Government; and I said " Certainly not." It was simply a matter of business. I had to get employment at my profession. He asked me what my terms were, and I told him they were three guineas a day. He replied that he would have no objection to that. I gave him an indefinite answer, because I knew the company were wanting my services. Mr. Young and Mr. Jones saw me after a few hours, and I told Mr. Jones I had not made a definite agreement with the Government; that the Government had applied to me, and I could not give him a definite answer until I got a definite answer from the Government. I also made a stipulation that it was to be a time engagement. 226. Did not that telegram plainly indicate this, that you —it was a telegram to Mr. Gordon, Mining Inspector, who was on the coast, was it not ? —Yes. Mr. Hannan wrote the telegram. 229. But you read it?—l saw it. 228. You suggest that you are not responsible for what was in it ?—Certainly not; Mr. Hannan wrote it. 229. Was it not the fact that you intimated that you would go over to the company unless the Government were prepared to pay you the same sum that the company paid ?—My terms were three guineas a day. 230. I ask you whether this telegram did not express plainly that you would go over to the company unless the Government were prepared to offer you as high terms, both as to the three guineas per day and the permanent engagement, as you were offered by the company ?—- The permanent engagement —that is the only thing affecting it. 231. Have you been in the permanent employ of the company ever since then?— Practically permanent employ. 232. Have you been receiving the regular remuneration ?—Yes. 233. Practically, you are an employe of the company for this purpose?— Yes. 234. Hon. E. Blake.] Since what date? —2nd May I started the examination. 235. Mr. Gully.] You have been paid a regular salary and expenses? —Not a regular, salary, but three guineas per diem. 236. I want to go a little more fully into detail as to the method in which you have tested these various reservations. First of all, can you tell us how many days in the aggregate you have been engaged on the work ?—I suppose between six and seven months—every day engaged on the ■work, Sunday included. 237. Every day, Sundays included, you have been inspecting one or another of these mining reserves or travelling ?—Yes. 238. Generally with a party?— Generally with a party. 239. The names of those persons you have given us already ? —Yes. 240. Are they all practical miners ?—Yes, or connected with mining, with the exception of Mr. Harper, who was not a practical miner. He was more a surveyor and explorer. 241. He is a surveyor?—l do not know that he is an authorised surveyor. He has been surveying in the Mount Cook district for the Government. 242. Do you wish us to understand that you went over substantially the whole of the ground of which you have spoken ?—Yes. 243. Might I ask you how you picked up the boundaries by which you arrived at a decision as 10*—D. 4.