I.—sb.

J. GOW. !

21

am bound to say, there has not been an ounce of anything of the kind from that part of it. There is a slight amount of gravel being washed away from just above the boundary of the drainage district in Mr. Meiklejohn's ground, but nineteen-twentieths of the stuff that comes down the Silverstream is brought down from the Silver Peaks district, which is miles outside the Taieri Drainage District. 5. Is there a great quantity brought down? —I do not think there is very much brought down now. At one time there was a good lot brought down. The Mosgiel Borough has a catchment-area up there for catching the water which they convey to their reservoir, and at every fresh in the river the pipes get blocked up, and a good deal of the gravel I understand comes down from there. 6. Mr. Reid.] Did you attend the sittings of the Commission which inquired into the Taieri Plain? —Yes, I attended it. 7. And you objected as soon as you knew that they proposed to put you into the district?—l did. 8. What do you think is possible to be done for you by this Board?— They could not do anything for me, because my land is already too dry. That was the evidence I gave before the Commission, and that it would be quite as just to ask the people down below to help to irrigate my land as to ask me to help them to drain their land. 9. The water from the Silverstream runs towards-the swamp?— Yes. 10. Does any of the water come from your land or anybody-else's?—Part of it comes from the hills surrounding my land, but 1 do not think any of the water flows off my land because it is of a gravelly subsoil and of a porous nature, but on the hilly land which is outside no doubt the water which falls there goes into the Silverstream. 11. You heard Mr. Allen's evidence yesterday?— Yes. 12. Do you agree generally with the evidence that he then gave? —Yes, generally 1 agree with everything he said yesterday as far as I can remember. 13. You know the Owhiro Stream? —I do. 14. Do you know anything about the relation of the Silverstream with the Owhiro—both streams are in the drainage-area?— Yes, they are both in the drainage-area. 15. Do you know if ever those streams have been one stream?— They have never been one stream since the Europeans came to this Dominion. I have been there all my life, and besides that my parents came here in the year 1852, and I have heard them discussing the two streams several times. Never since they came here did they ever hear any one say they saw those two streams running together, and certainly I can say that the Silverstream has never been diverted from the Owhiro into its present course. I have been told that some maps show that in the early days the Silverstream ran into the Owhiro, but if such a thing took place it is not within the knowledge or the memory of the residents of the Taieri, some of whom are too old to come here, but they could say it is not within their knowledge. 16. You remember the state of cultivation of the North Taieri. Did the cut at the top improve the land ?—Yes. 17. Did it improve it at the expense of the bottom land?—No, I should say not. Before thirty years ago I was not conversant with the lower end of the plain. 18. Cross-examined by Mr. MacGregor.] You, I think, Mr. Gow, appealed against the Board's classification?—l did. 19. And it came before the Magistrate in the Assessment Court? —Yes. 20. And a large number of appellants were in the same position as yourself ?—Yes. 21. And a large number of witnesses were called? —Yes. 22. And the Magistrate, if I remember aright, held that the classification made by the Board's classifiers was correct?—ln the main he upheld the classification of the Board's classifiers. He let me out of 50 acres. 23. You remember seeing Messrs. Lundius and Buckhurst when they came round?—l just saw them —that is all. 24. They were over your land?—l understand so. I did not see them on my land. 25. Do you know how they classified your land? —No. 26. Have you not heard?— No. 27. Would you be surprised to find that they had put less of your land into "D " than the Board did?—l could not say. I have inquired several times, but could not find out their classification. 28. You do not know whether their classification is more favourable to you than the Board's? —I do not know. 29. Did I understand you to say that you remember yourself making the cut down what is now the Silverstream?—l did not say so, but I can slightly remember the making of the cut. I was then five years old. 30. Can you tell us what the original width of it was?— About 10 ft., I think, but I would not be sure. When I say "10 ft." I am only going by what I have heard. 31. Nor can you tell us, perhaps, what was the state of the land —your land and the other land —prior to the making of the cut?—l can remember what it was like. 32. When you were five years old? —Yes. It was ground overgrown with rushes, Maori heads, flax, cabbage-trees, &c. 33. It is highly cultivated land now?—lt is. 34. And well drained?— Very well drained. 35. It must be drained into the Silverstream?—l could not say where it is drained into. I think the bulk of it drains the other way —towards Factory Road. 36. Into the Owhiro?—No. It flows down and rises up in a spring.