GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 999, 7 September 1877, Page 3

GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

[Bt Telegraph.] |PEB PBESS AGENCY.] HOUSE OF EEPEESENTAIIVES. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6. The House met at 2.30. QUESTIONS. Eeplying to Mr Pyke, Mr Bowen said the Government intended to appoint a commission to inquire into the Dunedin High School dispute. Eeplying to Mr Barff, Mr McLean said it was not intended to establish a Post Office at Dillman's Town, near Kumara, but he would make further inquiries. Eeplying to Mr Tole, Mr McLean said the Government were taking steps to improve the navigation of the Kaipara harbor. NEW BILL. The Native' Land Sales Suspension Bill was introduced by Major Atkinson. EETURN. On Mr J. C. Brown's motion, returns were ordered of lands taken and compensation paid for railway purposes, also of information relating to Otago runs. ME JONES. Mr Wakeeield moved that the manuscript of George Jones's statement, read at the Bar of House and furnished to the Clerk for convenience of the House, be returned to Jones. Mr BABES' seconded. He complained of grossly libellous telegrams, addressed to Jones, being transmitted by telegraph and also sent to newspapers. Mr Whitaker said the Crown Prosecutor did not require the manuscript. Mr Eees complained that, in defiance of [promises given in the House, the AttorneyGeneral had refused to produce public documents in the Police Court required for defence of Jones, or to submit himself to examination. Mr Whitakee said he had attended the Police Court to be examined when summoned by defendant. Mr Eees said he had called Mr Whitaker, but the Crown Prosecutor appealed to the Bench not to allow it. Mr G-ISBOBNB did not think the manuscript was the lawful property of the House. Mr Jones had simply lent it after reading it at the Bar for the convenience of the House, and it should be returned. Mr Hislop said Mr Whitaker had refused to produce documents which he had received notice to produce. The Crown Prosecutor Jiad objected to Mr Whitaker being called as a witness in the Court that morning. Mr Wood (Mataura) thought if such grave charges had been made against him as against Mr Whitaker, he would have taken the first possible opportunity of producing every evidence to clear himself instead of refusing to do so. Mr BuTTGir suggested that the manuscript should be photographed before being returned. Mr Douglas objected to the motion being aiade an excuse for attack on Mr Whitaker a 3 a private member for performing his duty as Attorney-General under orders of the House. The Speakee said Jones had been ordered by the House to give up the paper he had read at the bar. Major Atkinson was perfectly willing to give back this document, but doing so should not be a "precedent. Sir G. Grey thought it would be a monstrous precedent established tfc&fc if a person was called to the bar of the House and read a statement the manuscript could be taken possession of and used for the purposes of a criminal prosecution, if one was afterwards ordered. He moved an addition explicitly stating that no such documents should be so used. Mr Bees said no statement made at the bar or in the House could be used in auy court of law. After further discission, Sir G. Grey withdrew his amendment, and the motion was: then agreed to on the voices. MOTIONS. sfr Fos's motion, wading gambling and

selling liquor to Natives, the debate on which ■was interrupted yesterday, was agreed to. Dr. Wallis moved for papers relating to enquiry into statement of Alexander Grant, teacher at Onehunga, respecting copying at teachers' examination. Agreed to. LAND TRANSACTIONS. Mr Rees briefly moved —" That a committee, consisting of Messrs Bowen, McLean, Fox, Stevens, Bastings, Hislop, Ballance, Bunny, Macandrew, Curtis, Montgomery, Burns, Fitzroy, Delatour, Grey and the mover, be appointed to enquire into all dealings with Native lands by landed proprietors in Hawke's Bay ; such committee to have power to call for persons and papers, and to report in a month." Mr Oemond said he would take the opportunity of replying to statements previously made by Mr Rees regarding his land dealings, but which Mr Rees had not now repeated. These imputations were of a very gross character, and it was only in deference to the wishes of his colleagues that he had not replied to them at the time. He would also show that Mr Rees and Sir G. Grey, who had made these charges, had themselves been engaged in transactions he would be ashamed to be concerned in. He had only had three Native land transactions in the colony. The first was a lease taken up in 1862; the next was a lease of a run in Seventymile Bush, which he had parted with when he became Superintendent, and the third was 1200 acres in the Hcretaunga block, whi«h was the only land he had ever bought from-Natives. He bought it in conjunction with others in 1871. The whole block was about 16,500 acres, the price paid was £1 6s 8d per acre. It was now probably worth £2O per acre but the price paid was a fair one at the time. Two or three years afterwards Mr Tanner, one of the purchasers, had resold a portion at £3 per acre in small lots, taking payment out in ploughing, for which he gave £1 per acre ; other picked blocks had subsequently been offered for £4 and £5 per acre. Those associated with him were, Mr Tanner, Mr Williams, Captain Russell and his brother, Mr Hamilton Russell, Mr Gordon, and Captain Gordon, all men of high character and well known. Was it reasonable to believe that men of such high character could have engaged in a highly dishonorable manner ? How would they compare with the member for the City East ? No one had heard of their surreptitiously leaving one part of the colony to avoid creditors, and none of them had ever passed through the Bankruptcy Court. The transactions which were the subject of the imputations thrown on him had already in 1872 been inquired into_ by order of the House by a Royal Commission. Sir G. Grey was therefore mistaking facts when he said he had shirked inquiry. He and Sir D. McLean had done all they could to make that inquiry exhaustive, and it was especially directed to his own case, the very one on which Sir G. Grey and Mr Rees now based their charges. The Commission, after a month's inquiry, had reported that the transaction was a perfectly fair one, and that nothing improper could be substantiated. He quoted from " Hansard " the cowardly imputations, which were utterly and absolutely false, which Mr Rees had on previous occasions made against him. The first related to a telegram alleged to have been sent to Hawke's Bay in 1872, asking if a Bill would "do." The imputation was that he had got the law altered to suit his own case, which was utterly untrue. He had never sent any telegram which could bear such a construction. The next charge was with regard to a native named Waka Kawatini. In reply to this he read an extract from Judge Richmond's report on the case. Mr Tanner paid Waka a full price, and handed back to Waka the securities held by a man named Parker over other lands. Judge Richmond said the transaction was an advantageous one for Waka, and the other commissioner, Judge Manning, found that Waka had known perfectly well what he was doing. The third charge referred to dealings with Henry Tomoana. All the imputations about improper conduct in this matter were utterly untrue. He read the commissioners' report on this point, as well as the goneral opinion expressed regarding the cases investigated. Ho himself had no part in negotiating the purchase of the Heretaunga block; he had simply paid his share of the purchase money. Against the report of the commission there was Mr Rees' statemont, and he was content with the contrast. Since the Commission sat, there had been increasing litigation, founded on evidence procured before the Commission, conducted by paid advocates, of whom Mr Rees was one, and forty or fifty cases were now waiting trial. Yet Mr Rees had the indecency to come and ask for a committee to go behind the Courts of law and get evidenpe fished out. No more shameless proceeding was ever attempted in the House. Mr Rees had challenged him to meet him in a Court of law. If he did so, he would be in the same position as the defendants in these land transactions, .where the Maoris sued in forma pauperis and the other party had to pay all the costs. That was what would be his position if he met Mr Rees in a Court of law. He had seen Mr Rees' name in the paper as a bankrupt for debts yet unpaid. If Sir G. Grey would go into Court he would meet him, as he was substantial. The organisation for promoting litigation in Hawke's Bay was kept alive by mortgages on Native lands. The Natives were nearly sucked dry a year ago, when Messrs Watt paid £17,000 to buy out certain claimants, not, as had been represented, to compromise anything. A member of Legislative Council who directed these law proceedings had got £7OOO of this, and the Natives said they did not know what had become of the rest. One of the claimants, a woman entitled to £6OO, had tried in vain to get her share. She was told that £3OO had gone by order of the committee to carry on litigation, a further sum to pay a lawyer's bill, and the balance she was told could not be paid her, but she was oaered £5, which she indignantly refused. This was a cample of how things were managed in the Repudiation Office. The organisation was one dangerous to iha settlers of Hawke's Bay. Mr Rees had brought hordes of natives ready to swear anything to get their names on the electoral roll. Such conduct was dangerous to the country, and the House should roally interfere. Renata and Tareha had been described in the House as paupers ; what was the fact ? Tareha had a of 28,000 acres actually his own, and as to Kanaka, if he was a pauper there were many in the House, He and his hapu. by the forethought of Governmfnf nndhis (Mr Ormoud's) exertions, owned a very fine block of land also, although somehow it was now occupied by a member of the Legislative Council.

Mr Ormoad tob mteryupfced by tb» dinner hour.