MOKAU INQUIRY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1581, 26 October 1912, Page 11

MOKAU INQUIRY.

THE EVIDENCE CONCLUDED. Tha committee which is investigating the claims of Mr. Joshua Jones, of Mokau, against the New Zealand Government, sat at. noon yesterday to hear the evidence of Sir Joseph Ward. In answer to questions by Mr. Jones, Sir Joseph Ward said he could not recollect having made a promise to reinstate the private Acts affecting the land, which had beon repealed. Discussing the Ordor-in-Coun-cil, he said the Government had, owing to legal and other complications, been unable to purchase the estate, and they had therefore decided to put the Natives in the position of being able to sell to private individuals. The Government never at any time admitted that the country had any obligations to Mr. Jones. Joseph Edwin Dalton, licensed interpreter and Native agent, gave evidence as to Mr. Jones's dealings with the Natives in the late seventies. Mr. Jones had been very largely responsible for bringing abdut friendly relations between the Natives and the white people. Witness told what he knew of Mr. Jones's negotiations for the property. He expressed tho opinion that at the time Mr. Jones took the leases the rental he offered was' a very fair one, because it was' "as much as a man's life was worth" to go on to tho country thereabouts. So far as he knew, all Mr. Jones's dealings with tho Natives had been thoroughly straightforward and honourable. To Mr. Statham: Mr. Jones had certainly done very valuable services to the Government in assisting in negotiations with the Natives. This closed the hearing of evidence, and the committee will meet on Tuesday to deliberate on the framing of tho report.