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46. How long would it be before you went to Mr. Solomon's office ?—I could not say. I simply remember the conversation. 47. Was it a year or two years before ?—lt might have been a year. 48. That would give us some time in 1894. —I suppose so. 49. Two years after Meikle came out of gaol ?—I do not know that. 50. You saw Mr. Solomon's clerk ? —Yes. 51. You went with the intention of telling Mr. Solomon the story ?—Yes. 52. You knew he was going down to prosecute the man who had put the skins on Meikle's land ? —I knew he was going down in connection with Meikle's matter. 53. In fact you knew it was to prosecute the man who was instrumental in putting Meikle in gaol ? —Very likely. 54. Did you tell Mr. Solomon's clerk of this important information ?—No. 55. Why not ? —lt never occurred to me. I went to see Mr. Solomon, and he was gone 56. So that there cannot be any mistake, I will read what you have just said : you expressed the sympathy you had in regard to Meikle about the death of his child to Cameron, and said you thought it was a great hardship that Mr. Meikle had to suffer in the way he did ?—Yes. 57. That was before Cameron told you anything about it ?—Yes. 58. I will read what you said : " I thought it was a great hardship he should suffer in the way he. did. I expressed my sympathy to Cameron, and then Cameron grinned and showed his teeth. He ground his teeth as if he would have liked to grind Mr. Meikle to ashes," and he also said that Meikle deserved a great deal more than he got ?—Yes. 59. You had read the newspapers ? —Yes. 60. You had read Meikle's address appearing in the Mataura Ensign ? —Yes. 61. And there you found the charge laid against Cameron by Meikle ?—Yes. 62. Meikle said that Cameron had been instrumental in getting these skins put on his land ?—I do not remember what the report was. 63. That was the effect of it anyway ? —I suppose it would be that. 64. You read through the report of Meikle's speech in the Ensign ?—Yes. 65. Did you also find there that he charged Mr. McCulloch, the Magistrate, with being a partisan and unjust Magistrate ?—I have no recollection of that. It is only Cameron's name that I remember. 66. Do you remember the charge Meikle made in that speech against Mr. Mac Donald, Crown Prosecutor ?—No. 87. Do you remember the charge made in that speech against Mr. Denniston, now Mr. Justice Denniston ? —No. 68. What else do you remember about it ?—I remember distinctly that Mr. Cameron's name was mentioned. 69. lam putting it to you that a number of names were mentioned ? —I had no interest in them. 70. Did it not occur to you that if none of these men were going to bother their heads about this abuse of the public press Cameron need not trouble himself ?—No; it occurred to me that, being defamatory in my opinion, he should take notice. 71. In the year 1894, probably, you are told by a man that he has been the chief instrument in putting an innocent man into prison—that is the effect of Mr. Cameron's statement to you ?—He did not say he was an innocent man. Meikle was not innocent in Cameron's estimation. 72. It does not matter what his estimate was. He told you he had laid a trap and been the instrument of having skins put on Meikle's land in order to obtain a conviction, and you believed him ?— I could not but believe him. 73. Why did you not write to Mr. Solomon or Mr. Meikle and tell them this statement ? —I thought I had done sufficient when I went to see Mr. Solomon. The clerk told me that Mr. Solomon was gone, and I allowed the subject to rest. 74. Do you mean to tell the Court that you believed this story that Cameron told you, and that you would not in the interests of humanity send word to Mr. Solomon or Mr. Meikle ? You have never communicated with Mr. Meikle or his lawyer the statement you have made in the box to-day ?—No; I had no opportunity. 75. Can you write —you were a schoolmaster ? —I do not think you should ask that. 76. Do 3 r ou mean to tell the gentlemen on the bench that no instinct of humanity told you that you should not have kept this thing a secret in your breast and told no one about it. Why have you kept silent all this time ?—I tried to tell Mr. Solomon and failed, and when the matter came up again in the papers and Hansard I went to Mr. Fenwick and tried to ventilate the matter. 77. What you told Mr. Fenwick was that Cameron told you that he had laid a trap ? —Yes. 78. Did you tell Mr. Fenwick that Mr. Cameron told you that he had put skins on Meikle's land in order to get him convicted ? —Yes. 79. Will you pledge your oath to that ? —Yes. 80. Give us the circumstances. Where did you tell Mr. Fenwick this ?—Outside of his own house in High Street. Mr. Fenwick remembers the visit I made. 81. Was it in the morning or afternoon ? —The morning. 82. About what year ? —lt might be five or six years ago. 83. Which Mr. Fenwick was it?— Mr. George Fenwick. 84. The present editor of the Otago Daily Times ?—Yes. 85. You asked him whether the Times would open its columns, and he refused ?—Yes. 86. You pledge your oath you told him that Cameron told you that the company had permitted the skins to be placed on Meikle's land to secure Meikle's conviction ? —I told him words to that effect. 87. You have been following the Meikle case, seeing you had such a keen interest in it to begin with ? —ln a haphazard way.
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