VOLUNTEER INQUIRY ANOTHER DEVELOPMENT. Auckland, June 13.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 377, 15 June 1889, Page 5

VOLUNTEER INQUIRY ANOTHER DEVELOPMENT. Auckland, June 13.

The inquiry which is being held by Col. Shepherd into matters arising out of the late Easter encampment and the Mercer Hotel thefts wasresumcd attheDrill-shed thisforenoon, when it was expected that Captains Hitchens and Tflulse would put in their defence to charges made against them of tampering with a witness who gave evidence at the Police Court. We understand that Captain Hitchens ' has placed the whole matter of the charges before his solicitors, and, acting under their advice, has written to Colonel Shepherd, requesting to be furnished with a copy of the charges that have been made against him. He is aggrieved that the inquiry should have proceeded so far until he had been furnished with a copy of the charges, and we believe he has declined to recognise the inquiry until he is supplied with the charges in question. He has also demanded a full i court of inquiry into the whole affair. I Captain Hulse submitted a sworn statement by himself and Captain Hitchens denying tho charges madeagainst them, and called Mr Brassey, who was solicitor for Costello and Butler, to depose to certain facts. Captain Hulse also handed in a letter to the Defence Minister, to be forwarded through Colonel Shepherd, asking for a Board of Inquiry to be held into the whole of the conduct, management and arrangements of the late Easter encampment. Colonel Shepherd, addressing Captains Hulse an:l Hitchens, then informed them that they must consider themselves under arrest pending tho deoision of the Board.