I.—lβ.

18

[~E. WALKER.

52. But the suggestion does bear that out on the face of it ? —lt would if I had known that at the time I made the suggestion. I thought the Returning Officer would have some surplus ones not sent to any booth lying about as waste paper, and could do as he liked. 53. You are interested in doing right in the colony, and are one of the leading members of the Alliance ?—I am not a member of the Alliance. 54. You tell the Committee you have acted as scrutineer, and yet do not know the Act ?—I did not at the time remember or know that the unused voting-papers were required by the Act to be sent on with the used ones, or I would never have made the suggestion. 55. Do you think Mr. Isitt would have forgotten such a thing?—He tells me that he overlooked the thing and did not know, and that is where the trouble came in. 56. You have told the Committee that you have never seen any result from your suggestion ? —I have never seen any result from my suggestion. I do not know that I have spoken to him about it from that time until now. 57. The object of the Committee is to find out whether the business of the colony is being conducted by its officials in a loose and careless manner, and these letters would have been a test if any ballot-papers had been sent in reply : you, yourself, upon the evidence you have given, would know that if any Returning Officer sent those papers he would be committing a wrong ?— Undoubtedly, now I should ; but I never intended to suggest that he should commit a wrong, because I did not realise it. A. D. Thomson, S.M., further examined. (No. 7.) 58. Mr. B. McKenzie.] You dispute the assertion that Mr. Isitt interviewed you on several occasions on the Monday and Tuesday before the licensing election? You deny that?— Yes. 59. This is the statement that is in the report: " Whilst the ballot-papers were at the Court they appear to have been deposited either in Mr. Thomson's room, or in a room allotted to Mr. McKenzie to count them into the boxes ; " Of course, that was before the election ?—Yes. 60. "—— and, although Mr. Isitt is said to have called on Mr. Thomson several times about this time." That would be before the election. I think the police ought to give the reason for putting that in the report ? —I am confident that Mr. Isitt was never in my office before the electionday, although he may have been about the Court. 61. This report indicates that Mr. Isitt was in your office and could have put a bundle of ballot-papers in his pocket ?—I think I said the parcel of ballot-papers was brought into my office, and was carried by Mr. McKenzie and myself into the room upstairs. We could not carry the whole lot in one parcel, but we carried them up in parcels. Rev. F. W. Isitt further examined. (No. 8.) 62. The Chairman.] You gave the Committee to understand the other day that you had ascertained whether you had any more ballot-papers in reply to your letters to the Returning Officers, and, if necessary, would give the information in Committee : have you found out whether you did get any more ?—They were sent from three different places. 63. Can you give us the names of the places from which they were received?— No. 64. Do you know yourself ? —I know from what places they were sent, but I could not give you the names. 65. And were you bound by a promise not to do so in this particular case ?—No ; but the position is this : that it has been publicly stated in a railway-carriage that I was to be prosecuted for the theft of ballot-papers. That was publicly stated, and when I learned that the ballot-papers referred to were these particular papers and not the Buckle Street paper, I realised that if I were to be prosecuted the officials who sent them would also be liable to prosecution. I know that this threat was made in a railway-carriage by the member for Motueka. 66. Do you not think they should be prosecuted for committing a wrong ?■ —Yes, if they did wilfully commit a wrong. 67. Do you not know that before they take the position of Returning Officer they are sworn to do certain things ?—Yes ; but with my special familiarity with licensing matters at this period— and I had just come from a tour in connection with licensing matters in Mataura, and had been searching the Licensing and Electoral Acts very carefully—l did not know that it was their duty under section 9, subsection (3), of the 1895 Act to see that the unused ballot-papers were sent to the Clerk of the nearest Magistrate's Court with the used papers ; and I considered that if I were to be prosecuted for theft, and these men had carelessly acted wrongly at our instigation I might involve them in prosecution, and I posted the ballot-papers back to them. Ido not now know anything of any ballot-papers except that on this table. 68. And you decline to give the names of those men who committed a wrong? —I regretfully say that I must, because I do not know what may happen to those men. 69. Then, do you think it is right to ask this Committee to investigate a wrong that has been perpetrated, and of which you know, while you deliberately withhold information necessary to the investigation ?—Frankly, if I had remembered that the request for these unused papers had gone from my office, signed with my name, I would not have put in the petition. The letters were sent at the request of Mr. Walker, and there are hundreds of things that I sign which I only glance at. If I had known that that had been done I would not have involved these men in the risk of being put in this position. With regard to the other paper, I had full knowledge of the circumstances before asking that the matter should be inquired into. I do think that the facility given for the abstraction of papers is a much greater matter than the abstraction of a single ballot-paper. 70. We can only know the facilities with which these papers can be obtained by knowing how this one was obtained ? —I have given my reason for not giving the name.