THE MEIKLE COMMISSION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8105, 9 May 1906, Page 2

THE MEIKLE COMMISSION.

FIB FBBSS ASSOCIATION. Dunedin, May 8. Tlie endenoi for tiio applicant before | the Mcikle Commission concluded this forenoon. Nevil Sutherland, an old age pensioner, stated that Mr Cameron told him in 1894 that the Company wanted to got Mcikle off their land, as he was a sheep stealer, and that he, (Cameron), had employed a eertain person, whose name was not mentioned, to make a trap for Meikle. Dr. Findlay (who appears for the Crown) said this evidence came to him as a oomplete surprise. It would be necessary to obtain a Commission to seeure the evidence of Cameron, who was at present in England, and would not be returning to the colony. With the intimation that Mrs Meikle was too ill to gire evidence to-day, and that it might be necessary to oall her later on, supplicant's case closed. Dr. Findlay .then opened for the defence.

THE CROWN DEFENCE. A STARTLING STATEMENT. PEP PBESS ASSOCIATION. Dunedin, May 7, The Meikle Commission continued its sitting this afternoon, when Dr. Findlay opened his case. He gave the outlines of the whole case, contending that Meikle had no claim whatever on the Colony, the prosecution having been started by the Company, and Meikle being convicted on the evidence of the Company's witnesses. He then went on to show that the stories told now were inconsistent with matters at the time of the trial, ridiculing the statement that Lambert had said he was going to put skins on Meikle's land. It would have been easy to have pointed out at the time that it was Lambert's work, but instead the plea was put forward that the skins must have been taken ofE the fence by mistake. He went on to contend that Lambert's | conviction for perjury did not prove Meikle's innocence. It did not do away with 27 sheep being found on Meikle's property, or with two skins with the Company's brand being in Meikle's smithy. Although it was not his main purpose, he bolieved he would satisfy the Commission that Lambert was innocent of perjury for which ho had been convicted. Lambert had fixed the night on whioh ho had seen young Meikle drive the sheep, by his having visited a person named Gregg. That might be the 18th, instead of the 17th of October. A diary had oome to light since, showing that McGcorge, with whom Lambert was living on the station, had left on the 18th instead of the 17tb October. If that coijld have been produced at Lambert's trial, he, counsel, was confident that Lambert would not have been convicted.