I.—lα

1910. NEW ZEALAND

PUBLIC PETITIONS A TO L COMMITTEE (REPORT OF THE) ON THE PETITION OF JOSHUA JONES; TOGETHER WITH COPY OF PETITION, MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS, AND EVIDENCE.

(Mb. DAVEY, Chaibman.)

(Report brought up on the 15th November, 1910, and ordered to be printed.)

ORDER OF REFERENCE. Extract from the Journals of the House of Representatives. Thursday, the 7th Day of July, 1910. Ordered, "That a Committee be appointed, consisting of ten members, to consider all petitions from A to T +W may be referred to it by the Petitions Classification Committee, to classify and prepare abstracts of such petitions in such form and manner as shall appear to it best suited to convey to this House all requisite information respecting their contents and to report the same from time to time to this House, and to have power to report its ooinionTanf observations thereon to this House; also to have power to call for persons and papers; three to be a quorum • the Pom rnittee to-consist of Mr. Davey, Mr. Dillon, Hon. Mr. T. Duncan, Mr. Fisher, Mr. Hine, Mr. MacdonS Mr' NewnZ" Mr. Smith, Mr. E. H. Taylor, and the mover."—(Hon. Mr. R. McKenzie.) macaonaia, Mr. JNewman,

PETITION.

To the Honourable the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives of the Dominion of New Zealand, in Parliament assembled. The Petition of Joshua Jones, of Mokau, Taranaki, humbly showeth, That your petitioner arrived in New Zealand with his family in 1876 from Australia and after consulting with Sir G. Grey, then Superintendent of Auckland, and with Mr F a' Carnngton, Superintendent of Taranaki, proceeded to open up the Mokau district to European settlement. Both these gentlemen pointed out that it was very risky for Europeans to enter the King-country at that time, but gave me their assurances verbally, and subsequently in writing, that in the event of my being successful in my negotiations with the Natives in securing a peaceable footing in that territory, the Government would give me all the assistance in its power That this end became accomplished, and the General Government in 1879 gave me further assurances in writing. That through the acts of Government officers and the passing of Acts of Parliament adverse to my interests, the pledges I had received from the Government became disregarded and capital that came from Australia to work the property was driven away again, thereby causing me several years of trouble and expense. That in 1888, after exhaustive inquiry by Royal Commission, the Legislature passed a private statute for my relief; that following this provision it required a period of about two years to get the title into" form again. That in 1892-93, the time of the financial crisis in New Zealand and Australia I was compelled to proceed to London in search of capital to develop the property, and went to a firm of solicitors styled Flower and Nussey, to whom a Wellington solicitor named W L Travers acting for me, had previously sent particulars of it. That the head of this firm Wickham 1 lower, undertook, as solicitor for me, to advance certain moneys that were due upon the property, and bought it in at a sale for the amount due, on the Bth April, 1893, at New Plymouth

I—l.1 —I. la,