SUPPLEMENT TO THE WESTPORT TIMES.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 980, 18 June 1872, Page 1 (Supplement)

SUPPLEMENT TO THE WESTPORT TIMES.

the proposal, as it would, ba 00-nolotely to supersede I tha powers of the Seleot Committee appointed by lot by the Council, and now engaged in making the neoassary enquiry as the to faots. The same proposition had bean made to the Committee, and had reooived careful consideration, in order to givo every justioo to Mr. O'Oonor, but it wis unanimously found to bo impracticable, as being beyond the powers of tho Committee, and standing in the way of that Committee's fully ascertaining the foots thoy wore appointed to obtain. Hour the evidence of a private nature, which was not to ba divulged except to one or two persons, who wore to report not tho evidenoe itself but only their opinions, could be doomed evidence of fact on which either tho Council or a Committee could deliberate or decide, ho could not understand. To make such an appointment would simply ba asking the Committee to abdicate its functions in favor of a tribunal who could not report its facts. If evidence was to bo givon at all it must bo givon fully. Mr. A. 8. Collins thought tha proposition would result only in putting any two members so appointod in an escaadingly awkward position. Thay wara to receive evidence, and to form an opinion on that evidence, but not to give their reasons for that opinion. Such an opinion, in tho absooce of such reasons, would have little weight with the Council, and any two members so aopointed would ba liable to suspicion, poisibly very unjust, as to the motives by which they might have been actuated. A. charge had boon mado, and if it were proved it wouid be a very grave matter indeed, and there was therefore tho more nacessity that all tho ovidonce offared should be placed before the Council. Air. GuTNNE33 said the proposal was such as could not be entertained, as the nature of tha evidence would be unknown ; it might or it might not bo relevant, and if it were not stated how could the Council possibly judge of it ? The Provincial Treasurer said that the proposal was simply one to subject tha judgment of tho Committee and tha Council to that of one or two persons. Evidenoe must be open, or it was no longer evidence; there was no such thing as private evidence. Mr. Donne was disposed, in the present circumstances, to give an unusual latitude to Mr. O'Couor to enablo him to clear himself of the charges, but he could not see how the Committee, which had bsen selected by tho Council, and bad to act in the shape of a jury appointed to make certain findings as to matters of fact, could hand over any portion of their functions to any minor committee whioh was to ba restricted from stating tho facts submitted to it. Tho Select Committee was thoroughly impartial, and had been selected by lot, and the members of the Westport Committee had baen specially excluded from it, so as that no ground of complaint as to its formation could bo offered. He could see no reason why any information Mr. O'Oonor had to olFsr could not ba placed at the disposal of tho Select Committee. Mr. Heid was of opinion that to agree to the proposition would be to create two tribunals to adjudicate upon one and tho same matter—the one to state facts as it found thum, the other to give an opinion upon facts which it kept concealed. Such a mode of enquiry was anomalous, and would prove to be impracticable and valueless. Moreover, in what possible degree could it atfecc the question of the purchase being made with the knowledge that the land was to be withheld ? The application was uegativod. After some formal busiuoss, The Provincial Secretary movod tho adjournment of the Council, in order that tue Committee might proceed with the enquiry. FRIDAY, June 7. Tho Council met at 11 o'clock, and after notices of morion were called for, Mr Donne moved an adjournment of the Council till 12 o'clock, in order to allow the Enquiry Conmittee then sitting, to complete its labors and report. This would, he believed, facilitate tho business in the end, as at present tho minds of members wa.e very much disturbed, and would bo until this matter wis settlod one way or other. Agreed to. On reassembling at 12 o'clock, Mr. LtJCKtE reported that in order to enable lie O'Cooor to bring some evidence ha was desirous of produoing, the Committee had further adjourned, and he moved the adjournment of tho Council till four o'clock, at which tuna he believed he would be able to bring up a report. At four o'clock the Council again met, • and soon after, the report of the Committee was brought up and read as follows : The Solect Committee appointed to inquire into the circumstances of the purchase of eertLin sections of land at Westport, after a Select Committee had resolved to rocommeud the Waste Lands Board to withhold them from sale, beg to report as follows : Your Committee took evidence at considerable length, and after a duo and careful einsideration of that evidence, have unanimously arrived at the following statement of the facts : 1. That it appears that Mr. Engine Joseph O'Conor, one of the members of thy Council for the Boiler district, had, for some days prior to Tuesday, tho tth Juno, contemplated purchasing land in the tipper part of the township. 2. That the Westport Sea Encroachment Committee mot on Tuesday, the Ith day of June, and, between the hours of 11 aud 12 noon, of that day, after due deliberation, resolved to immediately recommend the Waste Lands Board to withhold from sale all sections open for sale in the said township, pending the decision of the said Committee as to tho propriety of distributing such land among persons who had suffered loss of land from son, and river encroachments. 3. That Mr. O'Couor wasin the Committee-room during the whole of the deliberations on the said Ith June, and also when the Committee decided to recommend the withdrawal of the land from sale; and, considering that Mr. O'Couor was present at these Committee meetings at his own request and to assist a.t the enquiry—your Committee have no reason to doubt that Mr. O'Conor was well aware of the whole proceedings of the said Westport Committee at the meeting held on the Ith of Juue. 4. That about noou ou the same day, and after the closing of the sitting of the said Westport Committee, and only a few minutes before the chairman thereof had communicated to the Waste Lauds Board tho resolution of the said Committoo, Mr. O'Couor did purchase at the Waste Lauds Office six of the said town sections which the Committee had in his presence aud hearing resolved should be withdrawn from sale with a view to being applied to public purposes as aforesaid. D. M. LtrcKiE, Council Chamber, Nelson, Chairman. June 7, 1372. Mr. Luckie then produced the notes of evidence taken, which, at the request of the Speaker, he read the Council. It extended over 40 pages, and the witnesses examined were : —Mr. Kynnorsley, The Speaker, Mr. Keid, Mr. Macmahon, The Provincial Treasurer, Mr. Daniels (tho Commissioner of Crown Lands), Mr. Catley (Recoiver of Land Revenue). At the request of Mr. O'Oonor, Mr. Gully (Draftsman in the Land Office), Mr. Alexander Mackay (Commissioner of Native Lands), and his Honor ttio Superintendent. There were also two statutory declarations put in by Mr. O'Conor, and a telegram by Mr. Hughes to Mr. O'Conor, and one by him to Mr. Hughos. Mr. Reid then moved a short adjournment of the Council, in order to consider what action should follow. Mr. O'Conor asked leave of tho Council to make a statement on tho subject of tho onquiry. Tho Speaker explained that Mr. O'Conor would have an opportunity of doing so when tho subject came before tho Council. Soveral members objected to Mr. O'Conor addressing the Council the onquiry at that particular time. Tho Speaker said Mr. O'Conor would bo in order in spoaking to the question of adjournment. Mr. O'Conor said that befora the Council adjourned he wished to bo allowed the opportunity of affording some explanation with reference to the charge brought against him, particularly as there were- some iuaccuracies and wrong statements in the evidence that had just been read. He felt that he labored under a very great difficulty in dofending himself, as he was called upon to prove a negative ; to show that a certain circumstance which was alleged to have taken place did not occur, and his position was rendored still more difficult by his not having a copy of tho evidence, aud by the fact that he was cut out from giving evidence of a highly important nature because it referred to matters that were strictly private, but which, if produced, would show that he was bound to follow that particular line of conduct

which had exposed him to this ohirgo. Taera wu a certain telegram in his possession wnioh would explain the whole matter, but in miking th\t public he would bo exposing, not only his own private afturs, but those of another parson, and he could not bring himself to dr»g these affairs before botii friends and foes. To put it in other words, in order to Drove himself innocent of a dishonorable aotion of which ha had boan aooused, it would ba nacassary for him to be guilty of a breach of trust. Was there a single member, ho would ask, in that Chamber who would pursue suoh a, course ? Were he to produce this evidence, it would at once bo seon that he hid decided upon buying these sections soma tima ago, but that it was neoessary for him to wait for tha receipt of tho tologram to which he lud alluded, before oompleting the purchase. Tint telegram was placed in his hands in the Committee-room on Tuesday morning, and he at once aotsd upon it. Ho was not present in that room as a member of the Committee, but under these circumstances : It ha 1 at first boon proposed to him that he should bo a inombar of it, but this ha had cloolined, because one part of its duties was to decide whothor compensation should b* awarded to tho losers by tha Moods at Westport. Considering that at least three-quarters of the property washad away within tho last six weaks was his freehold, ho did not think it proper that he should belong to the Committee, and therefore he had declined. A few days later, the report of the Provincial Engineer was sent in, containing the recommendation that the Governmant Buildings should ba removed, and then he expressed a wish to ba upon the Committeo, as he saw that it was to the interest of his constituents that ho should be so, and a seat was offered to him, but on second thoughts, he again declined, as he could not separate the two questions in his mind. He only attended the meetings of tho Committee once, aud then for the purpose of giving evidenco ; that concluded, he immediately left. On tho morning in question, he was summoned to attend another Committee, and, while he was waiting in the room, several members dropped in one after another, and lie then found that the Westport Committee was about to ait. Ha was about to leave tho room when Mr. Macmahon gava him a newspaper that he had promised him, and he thou took a seat at tho end of the room, at the window, and proceeded to read it, and while he w*s so engaged, ho received no distinct impression whatever of die business that was going on. Ho might have had a vague idea at times, but "the whoie alfair was mixed up with what he was reading, and ho had no definite notion of what was taking place. Wbsn tho telegram, releasing him from the pecuniary diffbulty which up to that tima had prevented his closing for the purchase of the laud, he at oaeo left the room without having tha least knowledge that it was proposed to withdraw the land from sale. Had ho known that it was to be withhold for the purpose of being distributed among the losers, he would have been an idiot to purchase the sections, as ha would have beeti throwing money away, for he being the principal loser would have received the larger portion. As to the probability of tho value of the laud being increased by the removal of the G-overnmont Buildings to that part, that was pubtiolr known before the Committee mat, as tho Provincial Engineer, the members of the Government, and of tho Council, as well as the people of Westport were all of one mind on that question. Besides, the fact of cutting up ten acres of laud and dividing thera amongst the numberless losers by tho floods would have provided for the requirements of four times the number of those who had suffered aud would have flooded the market with sections, and, consequently, those that he had purchased would have deteriorated rather than increased in value. Tho probable sanction of the Government to Mr. Dobson's scheme had , been made public, and after that no report of the Committeo, oven if agreed to, could have added to the value of the laud. He could not actually prove that he had not heard tho resolution, but he positively assorted that he had not done so, nor had he any idea that it wa3 likely to be decided upon. Had he done so he would no more have purchased that land than cut his own head off' nJthounh.i>. * .. doing, he wonla have debarred himself irotn making a purchase which he had long determined upon. Had Mr. Kynnersley told him of the resolution when he met him in the Land office, it would not have been too late, and he then would have refrained from buying. But now he was the purchaser, and although when Mr. Kynnersley first rose in the Council to make the charge against him ho was dumfoundered, confused, aud utterly unable to understand it, he now could see the interpretation that might be placed upon his action in tho matter, and would even allow that Mr. Kynnersley was apparently warranted in the course he had adopted. He had appealed to some of the members, and begged of them to allow him to lay bare his private affairs to them in confidence, in order that they might endorse his statement of the position in which he had been placed, but they would not do so ; but he would yet call upon a body with which he was connected to institute a full aud searching investigation, which, he was perfectly satisfied, must end in his complete exoneration. He would state again that he was not in the room when the rosolution was agreed to ; and to show that he was not actuated by tho knowledge that such a resolution had been passed, he would say that ho had not hurried himself, but had gone first to his house, then to the Bank, and then back to the Land office. If the Council would, before giving judgment in the matter, allow the Speaker to be appointed arbiter, aud to say, after examining the private correspondence and telegrams ho would show him, whether tho pecuniary difficulties to which he had referred had existed, but were removed by the receipt of the telegram ; and if, in addition to this, they would take his word that ho was not in the room at the time the Committee decided upon withdrawing the land from sale, he felt sure not one of them would be found to say a single word against his honor. Ho would repeat that he did not attend tho Committee to take part in their deliberations, but simply to give evidenco ; and that, although in the room, he did not listen to what was going on, still he folt sure that if tho decision to withdraw the land from sale was arrived at whilst ho was there, it would have been sufficiently startling, as affecting his interest so olosely, to attract his attention and to have forced him to hear what was being said. He was accused of acting upon information officially obtained, but tho principal information affecting the value of the land, tho proposition to make a road, and remove the Government Buildings to it, was public before the Committeo met. Once again he would say that the telegram and other papers to which ho had alluded, contained information that would entirely dear him, but, being of a private nature, bo would not divulge their contents, although ho felt that without them no one could obtain the right cluo to his conduct. The Council then adjourned for ten minutes, and on reassembling, The Provincial Solicitor said that whon the subject was first brought forward he had movod for the appointment of a Select Committeo because ho found that tho Council was asked to pass a resolution without fully considering the facts of the ease. That Committee had mot daily, and after taking a vast amount of evidence, had unanimously adopted the report just road. It now devolved on him to perform a most painful and unpleasant duty in moving a resolution strongly reflecting on the character of one of the members. The occasion that had given rise to suoh a resolution was ono that caused him tho deepest regret, but having been requested to bring it forward he should fail in his duty wero lie to refuse to do so, and he felt sure that both the Council and the honorable member referred to would believe that ho was not actuated by any personal feeling or animosity in performing that duty. In making their report the Committee had purposoly abstained from making any remark on the conduct of Mr. O'Conor, and in moving a resolution which he believed would be agreed to by every member, especially by those who had been on the Committee, ho should preserve the same retioonco. He would move : : "That the fact 3 narrated in tho Report of tho Solect Committoo of this Council, appointed to take into consideration the action of ono of its members in connection with the purchase of certain land 9 in tho town of Westport, and (the evidence appended thereto, disclose a course of conduct on the part of ono of tho members for the BiUler (Mr. Eugene Joseph O'Conor), of a kind entire ly uuparalleled and unprecedented in tho annals of the Council, highly derogatory to its character, and demanding its severest reprobation."