SUMMARY OF MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE ON NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 39, 5 July 1845, Page 4

SUMMARY OF MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE ON NEW ZEALAND.

Mr. Carrington's Evidence continued — " Just before I came away, Mr. -Baines, a ? friend of mine, said to me—" Mr. Wicksteed *is laughing at the matter. -He thinks you fancy that you are going to get something when you - get home ; he treats it as a farce." I said, if that be the case, I shall take care and secure ' myself before I go ; and I got all the information I -possibly could. I told Mr. Bainesl would see whether I could not get compensation. I got the letter to secure myself, and to prove j - that I had been told that the country was pur- - chased before I left the Ordnance service. " (1680) — Mr. A§lionby.~] Did you get the letter for the purpose of shewing against your employers that the land had not been purchased, and thereby using it as a means of obtaining compensation ? — I got it to shew the Directors of the New Zealand Company — not < as a means of enforcing compensation, but to prove "what had been told me. " For the purpose of forcing compensation from them by telling them that the land had not been purchased ? — That is a harsh way of putting it. " You 1 felt very sure 1 with regard to your treatment. ' Was not this tetter obtained by you for securing yourself by forcing some compensation for your losses? — I felt convinced, and do still, that the Dhectors will not let me be < ruined. ' " After youcatne-to England to secure your- ' self, did you not go to the Land Emigration Cbnimissioners and to the Colonial Office, to produce the letter as a matter of complaint ?—? — Not till I had sought at the New Zealand Com.pany's Office to betafffd. "'Mr.- Hope.'] Dul you ever produce that letter at the Colonial Office ?— No, not at the Colonial Office ; but I have had some conversation with Mr. Wood, and told him my case." Having come home with that letter in his possesHroft as evidence to secure himself, he made application to the Company, and finding he did procure attention there, he went with that letter, and with the other information he had obtained, to the Land Commissioners ; not with any ill feeling or wish to injure the Company, but simply with the purpose of getting an appointment — " I wished to' shew that I had bt en fifteen years in the service of the Government previously, and this was to strengthen jny case." " (1 695)—Mr.[Aglionby.] How did it strengthen your case to show to the Colonial Office that you had a letter from Colonel Wakefield to Mr. Barrett, fortifying your opinion that he had -not made the purchases which he alleged to have been made? — I should think that they would sympathise with -me under these circumstances. " You produced it for the purpose of obtaining sympathy ?—lt? — It was to show my position, and to prove that I had been deceived. " How came you to go to the Land Emigration Commissioners ? — I can hardly tell now ; I fancy that I went there to show my .sketches, and to show the iron and all that I had to show, or could tell about New Zealand. " Among other things, to show this letter and to tell your doubts about the Company's affairs ? — Yes ; T showed the letter to Mr. Wood." " (1713)— Mr. Cardwell.'] When you put in that letter, you stated that you were sure of two things ; one was, that on the Bth of November, when the letter is dated, no proceedings had been taken towards the purchase, which is stated in that letter to have been com•pleted ? — Yes, I traced that from the book. " The other thing that you stated was, that -the consideration alleged in the deed to have been paid for the land had not only not , been paid then, but has never^ subsequently been ,paid. Of those two thingsyou distinctly stated that you were sure to the Committee on your -last examination ? — Yes." He first came to those conclusions from the •dates, and from what he witnessed, made an -application to Colonel Wakefield for some trade •as presents to the chiefs at New Plymouth, which he sent in the Jewess; which was wrecked at Kapiti. Mr. Barrett told him that all that was paid for Taranaki was £500 worth of goods, which was landed in two boats.

" (r72"5)-~-That is all the pVoof which you are able to give to the Committee as to the non-payment of the consideration ? — I do not know that it is all, if I had time to call it to mind and to -state it ; if I had expected that these questions would have been put to me, I could have been prepared to show it. '* You have made these two very material statements which directly impugn the honesty of a gentleman holding a very important station in New .Zealand ; you must 'have expected therefore that you would be asked some questions tending to ascertain the proof on which you rested the statements you have made ?—? — I do not mentionthem for the purpose of impugning his honesty ; he may liave dove it for ought I know with a view to economy ; Ido not see that it touches his character ; he may have fancied it very honorable to give the smallest-payment he could. « " Do not you think that it touches a man's character to state that lie said he had made a purchase for which he has never negociated, and that he has obtained signatures to a deed, reciting payments which he had never made ? — It is stated in the letter, that all the chiefs had signed, "who certainly had not. ■ 4 " Does it occur to you now, to'lay before the "Committee any further proof, as to the second of those statements that the consideration has not been paid ? — No. " As to the other statement, thatnonegociation ever in fact took place previously to the Bth of November for the purchase of this territory, have you any other evidence to 'lay before the Committee, except the comparison which you have gone into, of the dates in Colonel Wakefield's journal? — None whatever; I go entirely by his own writings. " Was it a comparison of Colonel Wakefield's Journal which first led you to suspect that there had been none ? — No ; I knew it $1 , the country. " Then your means of knowledge are different from that which you have been able to lay as evidence before the Committee ? — Yes." *- « Has no further proof that he (Col. Wakefield) ha 3 not negociated for the purchase than his own writings. The witness gives a great deal of contradictory evidence on this point, and concludes by admitting he did not know that the stores sent out in the and Gvba, were not for the purchasing land alone,' but to a great extent for the use of the settlers, and that this knowledge decidedly altered his opinion, and states the position in which he had been in is an exceedingly unpleasant one.