72

[j. J. MEIKLE.

H.-21.

400. From off the 800 acres and the sheep and some crops you made between £400 and £500 a year ?—Yes. 401. For how many years before did you make that ?—For two years. I was offered £5 to go out of it. 402. That is £400 or £500 net after paying interest and labour and everything else ?—Yes. 403. What did you make prior to the two years ? —I was not making so much because it was all outlay. 404. What was your net profit ?—I cannot tell you. It was going out faster than it came in. 405. You gave Mr. Atkinson a statement of your finanical position when you were convicted : do you recollect the total amount of your indebtedness to J. G. Ward ?—I have not got the figures, but I gave them as near as possible. There was a crop still to come in. 406. Do you remember what the indebtedness was : I put it that the indebtedness to J. G. Ward was between £1,200 and £1,400 ?—That is wrong. It is absurd on the face of it. 407. What would you put it down at '—There might be about £450 or £500 at the outside ; but to talk of me owing Mr. J. G. Ward at that time £1,200 is nonsense. 408. Do you know what the indebtedness was afterwards ? —No, because I was in prison. 409. The farm was sold : have you ascertained how long it was sold after you were convicted ?— I could not say ; it was about two years I think. 410. The farm was sold and your stock was sold and your debts were paid I suppose ?—I think it was in 1888 the stock was sold. 411. The transfer appears to have been registered on the 29th March, 1889 : that would be eighteen months after your conviction ? —Tknow the crop was badly handled. 412. At any rate there was a sale of the land and, I suppose, a sale of whatever chattels there were I—l1 —I think they sold all the stock from what I have been told. 413. Have you received any balance after payment of your debts ? —I have received nothing. 414. There was no balance from these sales after payment of the debts '—Everything was sacrificed. I believe that some of the horses went at less than half their value. 415. You have not got any account sales ?—No, I was in gaol. 416. Did you ever get any account sales ? —There was a small slip given to me. 417. Whatever your financial position was when you were convicted, upon the realisation of the property later there was no balance left for you after deducting your debts '—Certainly not; if there had been Mrs. Meikle would have told me. 418. A sum of £295 odd was paid to you for costs ?—Yes ; but they could not pay for witnesses and the expenses I had been put to. 419. It was paid to you for costs ? —lt was paid to me as part of the costs. 420. What did you do with that £294 ?— It was pretty well swallowed up before I got it. 421. Did Mr. Solomon get nothing out of the £294 ?—Mr. Solomon's bill for prosecuting Lambert was sixty guineas. 422. The question is this : that you paid Mr. Solomon nothing out of the £294 ? —No. 423. Can you produce any statement showing your disbursements out of the £294 ?—No. 424. A little later you got an offer of £500 ?—Two years after. 425. I understand that you refused this sum when first it was offered as being too small ? —I did. 426. Mr. J. W. Kelly told us in his evidence yesterday that he called your attention to the terms of the receipt that you signed —that he pointed out to you that the receipt was a final and complete discharge of all claims against the colony. You have read Mr. Kelly's evidence : was that true ?— He told me to look at it. 427. Was his evidence true yesterday when he said he pointed that out to you ?—Yes. 428. You heard his evidence ? —Yes. 429. Was his evidence true ? —So far as he went. ' 430. After your attention was called to it by Mr. Kelly you signed it ?—Yes. Members of the House —I do not want to mention names —told me that I was bound to get justice ;it did not matter who came into power. 431. Mr. Robert McNab interested himself on your behalf ? —I can give you a few remarks made in the House from Hansard. The Premier's statement was that this payment was for costs —simply to assist me for my costs in the prosecution of Lambert. 432. The £500 received was two years after the conviction of Lambert, and after paying the costs 433. Mr. Justice Edwards.] Surely the costs could not have come to more than £294 ? —There were five trials. 434. Dr. Findlay.] There was one trial before the Supreme Court; the others were trials before Justices. You got £294-odd for the costs of these prosecutions ?—Yes. 435. As regards the counsel who appeared in the Supreme Court, the total fee he got was £18 ?— Yes, quite correct. I had to pay witnesses a bigger scale than Bs. a day. 436. Do you seriously tell this Court that you disbursed more than £294 ?—Of course I disbursed more. 437. Mr. Justice Edwards.] That will not do for me, because I have been in practice and I know what these things are. Possibly you may have done so ; but certainly I would want to see the details before you could persuade me as to the costs ?—I had buggies and the costs of serving my own witnesses because I could not get them served by the police. That was the reason I signed the receipt for the £500 —because it was stated it was not for my innocence. 438. Dr. Findlay.] You got £500 later *— Yes.