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1903. NEW ZEALAND.

PUBLIC PETITIONS A TO L COMMITTEE: REPORT ON THE PETITION OF J.J. CLARK, TOGETHER WITH MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. Mr. W. SYMES, Chairman.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly, and ordered to be printed.

ORDER OP REFERENCE.

Extract from the Journals of the House of Representatives. Fbiday, the 3bd Day op July, 1903. Ordered, " That a Public Petitions A to L Committee, consisting of ten members, be appointed to consider all petitions that may be referred to it by the Petitions Classification Committes, to classify and prepare abstracts of such petitions in such form and manner as shall appear to it best suited to convey to this House all requisite information respecting their contents, and to report the same from time to time to this House, and to have power to report its opinions and observations thereupon to this House ; also to have power to call for persons and papers ; 'three to form a quorum: the Committee to consist of Mr. E. G. Allen, Mr. Hall, Mr. Hardy, Mr. Lethbridge, Mr. R. McKenzie, Mr. Remington, Mr. Symes, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Wood, and the Mover."—(Hon. Mr. Hall-Jones.)

PETITION.

To the Hon. the Speaker and members of the House of Representatives of the Colony of New Zealand in Parliament assembled. The petition of James John Clark, of Kilbirnie, near Wellington, but at present residing at Dannevirke, humbly showeth, — 1. That on the 15th August, 1902, your petitioner returned to New Zealand as brigade adjutant of the Ninth New Zealand Contingent. 2. That your petitioner was engaged from the 18th August until the 11th September in making out discharge-certificates for the men of the above-mentioned contingent, a period of twenty-five days. Your petitioner for this service submitted a voucher for £40 12s. 6d., made up as follows :— To duty making out discharge-certificates of Ninth New Zealand £ s. d. Contingent, 25 days at £1 per diem ... ... ... 25 0 0 Detention, 25 days at 12s. 6d. per diem ... ... ... 15 12 6 40 12 6 This sum was duly paid. 3. As the discharge-certificates for the Seventh New Zealand Contingent had at that period not yet been issued, and as your petitioner had acted successively as wing adjutant and assistant adjutant to that contingent before transferring to the Ninth, the Chief Staff Officer, Major N. L. D. Smith, instructed your petitioner to proceed with that duty. This occupied your petitioner from the 12th September until the 6th October. 4. On the completion of that duty, the Chief Staff Officer instructed your petitioner to proceed with the compilation of the rolls for the requisition of the King's South African Medal and clasps for the whole of the ten contingents which had proceeded from New Zealand. This was a long and difficult task, as it embraced upwards of six thousand names of officers and men, a number of whom had served in two contingents, and others again in three. These officers and men had to be successively transferred from one contingent to the other, and, in the case of the contingents in which they last served, their total time in South Africa had to be worked out, in order to ascertain if they had qualified for the medal. An idea of the large amount of work that had to be performed will be obtained from a perusal of the copy of the medal roll (the fourth) now on record at the Headquarters Office. In the absence of any authentic record of a man's total service in South Africa, this could only be ascertained by going through the various records available at Headquarters, and in some cases only by a personal knowledge of the man concerned. I—l lc.