90

[j. MAEIN.

H.—2l.

not suggest that the evidence you are giving is unfair, but I put it to you that Templeton suggested it to you, and that suggestion has reached harvest ?—Templeton did not suggest it to me. He asked me if I recollected it, and I said " Yes." 361. He tells you what he wanted you to recollect ?—Yes. 362. And he suggested that you should give evidence upon it ?—Yes. 363. Mr. Atkinson.] Did you or Mr. Templeton recollect most of this conversation ?—Well, it was to me that Troup was addressing himself. 364. Did he seem aggrieved against the company in that conversation ?—Well, he was aggrieved in the other business—in the trespass business. That was his object in his being there. 365. Was there anything to show that Troup was joking when he made this remark about documents ? —No. 366. What do you mean by saying that you did not take rt seriously ?—I drd not think rt was any business of mine. 367. Did you take him to mean what he said ?—Generally a man means what he says. 368. Was'there anything to suggest that he did not mean what he said ?—No. 369. Mr. Justice Edwards] Surely you knew the man was behaving very ill. As you know, a man was serving seven years' sentence, and it was suggested he was wrongfully imprisoned, and yet when this man tells you he has documents in his hands to prove wrongful imprisonment you tell him he had better keep quiet ?—I told him he might get into serious trouble. 370. Surely you must recognise that was a very grave departure from moral duty ?—I was one of the deputation that waited upon the Hon. Mr. Richardson about that time to get Meikle out. 371. That is all the more reason why you should not tell a man to keep quiet. Ido not quite understand you. We do not want to make things unpleasant. You say you did not attach any importance to it. If you had not attached any importance to it I could understand your silence. Now you tell us there is nothing to make you doubt that the man meant what he said. If so, you must recognise that you were guilty of very great breach of duty towards an innocent man. Your duty was not to dissuade the man from saying anything, but to tell him that at any sacrifice it was his duty to make a clean breast of it and get the man out ?—lt may have been, but I did not look at it in that way. 372. Mr. Atkinson.] Have you any particular intimacy with Mr. Meikle ?—No. 373. You told Dr. Findlay you could not say as to the state of the pasture or feed on the two properties the year before ?—No. 374. I want to know whether you can say roughly how long the paddocks you saw at Mr. Meikle's must have been in English grass I—No, I could not say how long. Some of them had been longer than others. 375. Could you not say very roughly ?—Some of them may have been sown the year before, and some of them had been sown for two or three years. Francis Sutherland Fraser examined. 376. Mr. Atkinson.] You are a contractor carrying on business at Gore ?—Yes. 377. How many years have you been in business there ? —I left the Railway Department in 1876, and I have been following contracting since. 378. You have had some big drainage contract on for the Mataura Borough Council recently ?— Yes, the last contract I was at was in Mataura. 379. Was that for the Borough Council ? —Yes. 380. Did you give evidence at Lambert's trial in 1895 ? —Yes. 381. And you gave evidence also before Mr. Hawkins the Magistrate in the same year ? —Yes. 382. Did you see Mr. McGeorge when the case was before the Magistrate at Gore ?—Yes. 383. He was a witness there ? —Yes. 384. When had you last previously met him ?—I met him on a very wet day while I was doing the contract at Mataura. 385. And where exactly was it that you met him % —He came in with a team to Cameron's Hotel, and he left his team at the stables. 386. When had you last seen Mr. McGeorge before that meeting ?—lt was when I was a very young fellow and he was a young man too. I was at that time at Morton Mains, and McGeorge was at the same place in the early days contract ploughing. ■ _ - 387. How many years, roughly speaking, intervened between then and the time you met him afterwards I—l1 —I could not say. I have not looked vp M anything to remind me, but it niust- be fifteen or sixteen years. 388. You say McGeorge had a team with him. Do you know which way he was travelling or what journey he was making ? —He told me he came from the Islay Station and that he was making for Half-way Bush —the actual name of the place was Dacre—Mr. Hayes's place. 389. How long did McGeorge spend with you ?—I could hardly tell. He just came in with his team and fed his horses. We had a good conversation and had dinner together. 390. Did he go on the same day ? —Yes, he went early in the afternoon. 391. Was it a fit day for travelling ?—No; at that particular time it was raining'very hard. 392. But Mr. McGeorge went nevertheless ?—Yes. 393. Did you see Mr. William Stuart of the Islay Estate ?—That would be the gentleman who introduced himself to me when L was in Dunedin. He'said his name was Stuart, but I did not know the gentleman. 394. Then you did not meet him on that day to your knowledge ? —No, 395. Did you see Mr. Lambert that day ?—Yes,