I.—sb.
28
[c. b. holton.
getting horse and plough up on top of the ridge, which rises to about 550 ft. above sea-level. This section is a terrace just overlooking the beach. It is a long, narrow slip of land, and it rises up from the road in various places, at the steepest part perhaps 30 ft. to 35 ft., and it is broken in the middle by a spur, which comes down from the hill. There are two little bits of flat land on it. My section contains very little flat or ploughable land. There is about 15 acres altogether of flat ploughable land in patches here and there. I use the section, as I say, for the purpose of getting my horses up the hill when we want to do any ploughing on the top of the ridge. 4. Hon. Mr. Massey.] When did you first hear that you were likely to lose this land? —I first got to hear about it at about the end of October last year. 5. Was that official information? —No. I heard about it quite by accident. The man ,who told me was a man who was working on the roads round there —a roadman employed by the Cheviot County Council. 6. What did he say?—He said, " There is somebody up there looking about after that section of yours." He said, "If I were you I would make some inquiries about it and see what they are doing." I thought the matter over. I thought to myself, well, I have received no official notice—no notice that my lease is to be terminated or anything of that sort, but I will make some inquiries about it. I went down to a man named Wilkinson who lives close by and asked him whether he has seen anybody up there looking at the section, or whether he had heard anything about it. He said, " No, I know nothing about it." Then other information leaked out, and I found that there were one or two people there who were going to apply for the section. I then wrote down to the Commissioner of Crown Lands at Christchurch and said I would like to have an interview with the Land Board in Christchurch They met on the first Thursday in November. I went down to that meeting and said as much as I have said to-day before this Committee, and the Commissioner said, " This land is going to be put up on renewable lease and you will not be allowed to apply for it." That is practically all the information I got. But when I came out of the Land Board meeting, Mr. Gibson, the man who comes from Cheviot, came out to me and said, " The members of the Land Board are inclined to allow you to remain in occupation of this section, but it is the Commissioner who is a bit against it." He .said, " I should like to have a talk with you about this. Come up and see me as soon as possible." After we got back to Cheviot I went up to see him one Sunday, but 1 did not get any further information about it from Mr. Gibson. Nothing more was said about the section. 7. Did you see Mr. Gibsoh again?— Yes. At this meeting I said that I wanted access to my land, and that was why the section was originally granted to me. They said, "We will send the Ranger up to visit Cheviot and he will see whether what you say is correct." In the meantime the Ranger did go up to Cheviot, and I spent three hours with him. I happened to catch him, and was with him for three hours walking up and down the hills and up the Buxton Creek, and he left and went to Christchurch. Then I wrote a letter down to the Commissioner asking if he would let me see the Board again in December. I went down. In December the Board said, "We have resolved to put this land up on renewable lease. You will not be allowed to apply for it. But we intend to grant you a half-chain road across the middle of the section to give you access to your land." 8. Do you know a man named Rentoul? —Yes. 9. Had Mr. Rentoul expressed any desire to become the occupier of this section? —Not to me. I know it now. I understood that this thing was to be kept secret; it was to be done secretly. This arrangement about cancelling my lease and putting the section up on renewable lease was to be kept quiet, and that Mr. Gibson had undertaken to put it through in December. 10. I shall want some explanation of what you mean by "arranging it secretly"?— Quietly—putting it through quietly. It was to be kept secret. It leaked out little by little in that way. 11. Who was working in this way?— Mr. Rentoul himself. 12. Who were parties to this quiet arrangement?—lt was to be quietly put through. There was Mr. Rentoul; there isas a Mr. Wilkinson, I believe. 13. Tell us what you know about this quiet arrangement?— Mrs. Rentoul and Mrs. Tweedy were very friendly. Mr. Rentoul had been spending the summer down close to this section, and there was a neighbour there named Tweedy. Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy were very friendly with the Rentouls, and there was a Mr. Sidney Smith also friendly. He lived next door. But later on Mrs. Rentoul and Mrs. Tweedy were not on such friendly terms —were not on speaking terms —and then Mrs. Tweedy let out—l think it was to my son, C. Holton —that this arrangement was to be kept secret and nobody was to be told about it. She said that Mr. Rentoul was going in for the section, and she spoke as if he was certain to get it, although there might be one or two others. That is how it leaked out. 14. Mr. Guthrie.] You say that your son told you. I cannot admit that. Just give us what you know from your own direct knowledge?—lt was kept secret from me, and I had the greatest "difficulty in finding out anything about it. The loss of the section was a severe one to me. I am only a small farmer. By using that land in connection with my own I am enabled to keep a few more ewes. If that bit of land is taken away it will make a difference of perhaps thirty ewes —I shall have to keep that number less. I have got on the land this year 308 ewes, from which I get my living. I had last year 306, and that is about the average. That is all I have to get a living from. 15. Hon. Mr. Massey.] You are of opinion that there was a conspiracy to take this section from you?—My opinion is that they found out that I had not got a clear tenancy of this land and they thought they would like to have it. They communicated, some of them, either with the Land Board or with Mr. Gibson, who was the representative of Cheviot on the Land Board,
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