19

1.—3

were distributed from 1 to 35, from 35 to 70, and so on up to 247, so that the public would immediately know from their tickets where to come to receive their miners' rights. Mr. Mackay got his rights late that night. After 10 o'clock Mr. Brissenden came to get some miners' rights issued to him, but I told him I could not issue them to him because it would be unfair, as we had refused other people, and he said he had applied to Mr. Mackay for them long before, and I said, " If you have applied to Mr. Mackay long before, he can get the rights and issue them to you in the same way that he does to the other people who made previous application to him." All the tickets were compared, and all Mr. Mackay's rights were ready by 2 o'clock in the morning. The rights represented by the 247 tickets issued by Mr. Mackenzie, and which I was to superintend the distribution of, were taken possession of by me. The other rights for the applications received by Mr. Mackay, and which Mr. Mackay accounted to Mr. Allom for, were taken possession of by him. Mr. Mackay was to issue the latter at the compartment set apart for him simultaneously with the issue of those represented by the tickets immediately after the reading of the Proclamation, at 10 o'clock exactly next morning. For some considerable time previous to that hour there was a crowd of people in front of the tent securing positions, which would enable them to get their miners' rights first. They had been there from half-past Bor 9 o'clock, waiting for 10 o'clock. When that hour arrived, Mr. Mackay addressed the diggers, and handed me the Proclamation, which I read. There were several Proclamations, one opening the gold field, another about the reserve for the township, and another with reference to the Prospector's Claim at Karangahake. I addressed a few words to the people upon matters connected with the field, and all this occupied, I suppose, about 9 minutes altogether from 10 o'clock. There was a counter running alongside the barricade, and the people were outside it, on the other side of the post-and-rail fence. Before this, about half-past 9 o'clock, we went and cleared everybody out of the tent, except Mr. Mackay, Mr. Bullen, Inspector of Armed Constabulary, and Mr. Newell, of the Armed' Constabulary. Policemen of the Armed Constabulary were stationed at the back door, because it was said that there would be an attempt to give some people the preference by giving them their rights out of the back door, but there was very little in that statement. There wore seven of the smartest people I could find (including the men who were to be officers of the gold field, Mr. Mackenzie, Mr. Mackay's clerks, Mr. Crippen, and Mr. Andrews) selected to issue the rights for me. They were stationed at the different compartments, and there was a blank space in the centre, from which I addressed the people and read the Proclamations, and I could see all that was going on. The rights represented by the 247 tickets were divided amongst these seven persons consecutively, and counted to ascertain whether they were all right. Nobody else was admitted to the tent. Immediately after the Proclamation was read, I ordered that the rights should be issued, and they were all gone in less than seven minutes. Everything passed off very quietly, and there was a rush to peg out. The Karangahake Spur was the great scene of attraction, where the Prospectors' Claim was marked out, and the aim of everybody at that time was to get there as quickly as possible, and all sorts of contrivances were made use of to get the miners' rights on the ground as quickly as possible. Between 11 and 12 o'clock a gentleman belonging to the Thames Advertiser (Mr. Hortou), and Mr. Berry, a reporter for the same paper, who had been up to the Karangahake Spur previous to the pegging out, came to me, and informed me that miners' rights with my signature to them had been issued before 10 o'clock. I did not pay much attention to them, and they said that Cashel and a man named Howard had those rights, which they had seen. I thought they were merely imitations which they had got for the purpose of preventing other people from pegging out, by making them believe they were genuine rights. I got a description of Howard, and I knew Cashel, and that evening I watched for the man Howard. I came across him and asked him whether he had been up to the spur in the morning. He said he had, and I then asked him whether he had a miner's right at the time. He then showed me his right, which was, I think, numbered 659. I saw that the right was a bond fide one, and asked him whether that was the right that he had shown to Messrs. Horton and Berry. He said it was the only miner's right he had. I did not do anything in the matter. I simply thought it very odd, and that I would try to find out how he got it. Then the idea struck me to make up the applications in a book—a large book which I put in evidence at the inquiry. After the book was prepared, I looked at the miner's right and saw that it was one of those that should have been issued by Mr. Mackay. Nothing more was done about the matter until a case of disputed ground arose in the Warden's Court, in which case a number of Natives, who had been instrumental in a great measure in getting the place opened, brought an action against Blake and party for encroaching on their claim. This case involved a question of who had possession of miners' rights, and who were there with the rights first on the morning of the 3rd March. It was admitted by Blake and party that these Natives had done everything the law required. Blake and party only said that they had done it before them— that they were in possession of the rights before them. Takarei and other Natives had made such arrangements that they were on the ground as early as it was possible for any white man or Native to be, and such was proved to be the case. On inquiry it was found that Blake was in possession of ten miners' rights for his party for some considerable period before it was possible for any miners' rights legitimately issued from the office to be on the ground. These rights I impounded, and sent a telegram to the Hon. Dr. Pollen stating that such was the case; and that as there was something wrong about the business, it would be better to have an inquiry. I could not leave Ohinemuri then, so I sent the telegram to G-rahamstown; and for fear of any mistake I took a horse that afternoon and rode to Katikati, and got there before the office was closed, and from there I sent a duplicate. Knowing that the Native Minister was at Maketu with the Arawas, I went on to see him. I thought that it would not be right that these Natives, who had done everything that the law required, and had done everything in a legitimate and proper manner, should be ousted from the ground. When I got to Maketu, I saw Sir D. McLean, and he agroed with me that there should be an inquiry. During the time I was at Maketu, I received a telegram from Dr. Pollen, saying that an inquiry would be instituted into the proceedings. When I returned, this large book was prepared, and a list of the rights represented by the number of tickets. I made every exertion to trace where all the rights came from. I found that the rights which had got out before the proper time had come from the lot which had been applied for through Mr. Mackay by Mr. Brissenden; and all the rights that had been.

Captain Fraser E.M.

20th Sept., 1875,