27

I.—4a,

Colonel Header.

27th Sept., 1878.

Superintendent Shearman.

27th Sept., 1878.

instance, because I believed the object of the Government was to make inquiry of the police as to the charges, so as to answer the Mayor's letter, and then, if the inquiry was not satisfactory, and he could not get evidence, to go to Mr. Barton. 717. AVould you not think, in the regular course, that, as Mr. Barton had made these charges, he had something within his knowledge to prove them ? —Tes. 718. And, in order to get at the truth, do you not think that the first step to be taken should be to go to Mr. Barton, and ask him to substantiate what he had stated ? —Tes ; it might be. 719. Is not that looking at the matter from a common-sense point of view? —It did not strike me that way then. When any inquiry was to be made I considered an inquiry should be first made of the police. 720. That was to go to the party accused ?—Tou must recollect the party accused must have given information to Mr. Barton himself, and the same party who gave information to Mr. Barton could give it to Mr. Shearman. It must have been the police. 721. Mr. Barton makes the charges, but discloses no names? —No. 722. How could the police communicate with the parties when Mr. Barton gave no names —gave no information —unless the police communicated with Mr. Barton ? —There were no names mentioned, but the speech pointed at one man. 723. How do you know ? —lt was assumed, and everybody seemed to know it. 724. It referred to Policeman X ?•—Tes ; and everybody knew who that was. 725. Oh ! have you the same theory as Mr. Shearman about Policeman X being an ex-policeman ? How did you know " Policeman X " referred to a particular individual ?—That was a nickname of Monaghan. 726. Policeman X was a nickname for Monaghan ? —Tes j it was a well-known nickname of his. 727. Well, I will only ask you one more question. Mr. Shearman stated clearly that if it had not been for instructions from you he should have gone straight to Mr. Barton. Do you recollect having given him instructions which would cause him to take such a course of action ?—Very likely he construed what I said to mean that, when I suggested that inquiry should be made first of the police. Mr. Sheabman, being duly sworn, was examined. 728. The Chairman] Has your attention been drawn to a case of supposed incendiarism, in which one Morton Quin was concerned? —Tes. 729. By whom ? —There was a memorandum prepared for me in the office, and I signed it when I , was acting for Colonel Moule. That had reference to this matter. 730. That was before you took charge?—Tes. 731. Do you know anything of the matter of your own knowledge?— Nothing whatever. 732. Have you found any further documents or papers connected with the other matter since you were here last ? —Tes; here they are. [Letters dated 9th April, 1878, and 13th April respectively, read.] 733. The last paragraph of this letter (13th April), as you originally sent it, contained a paragraph which was struck out ? —Tes. 734. How did that come to be struck out ?—After I had forwarded the letter to Colonel Reader, I saw him 735. Hon. Mr. Gisborne] Did he send for you ?—I do not know. As a rule I saw him in his office, and he told me the letter would do if I erased the latter portion. 736. Tou say, in this letter, " I submit, as requested, a letter to Mr. Barton." Who requested you ?—The Under Secretary for Defence, Colonel Reader. 737. Then he told you to strike out this last paragraph ? —Tes. 738. Mr. Bunny] This letter marked " Cancelled." What do you know about that letter, after you sent it in to Colonel Reader ? —Nothing. 739. How do you know it was not sent to Mr. Barton ?—I do not know it was not. 740. Why then did you mark it cancelled ? —Because I thought it was not used. 741. AVhat made you think that ? —Seeing it was not in the papers. 742. The Chairman (to Mr. Barton)]. Did you get that letter, or such a letter? —I did not. 743. Hon. Mr. Gisborne] Tou say you were verbally requested by Colonel Reader not to call upon Mr. Barton ? —Tes ; I suggested calling upon Mr. Barton. 744. And he advised you not to ? —He intimated I had better not. 745. He seems to have asked you to submit the draft of a letter to Mr. Barton ? —Tes. 746. When were you asked to submit that ? —I do not know exactly. 747. My supposition, from your evidence, as to the course matters took, is this : Tou went to Colonel Reader and he advised you not to apply to Mr. Barton personally, but said, " Write a letter to me which you propose to send Mr. Barton" ? —Tes. 748. Tou did write that letter, but it was cancelled, and you were asked to withdraw the paragraph in your letter submitting the draft ?—Tes. 749. Tou did so, and naturally inferred that the letter you wished to send to Mr. Barton never went?—Tes. The whole of the correspondence appears in the record-book, which I have here. 750. Mr. Barton] Colonel Reader, in his examination, has stated that if you had gone to me, he would not have considered you were disobeying orders. He says this in effect: "I certainly told him not to go to Mr. Barton in the first instance, but if he could not get information from the police, then he should have gone to Mr. Barton " ? —I do not recollect that. 751. Apparently you first caused inquiry to be made amongst the police by Inspector Atchison without any reference to me. Was it after inquiries had been made of the police by Inspector Atchison and his minions, showing that he could get no information, and that I stated what was false, that you wrote the letter to be sent to me, or was it before any inquiry had been made of the police?— When the matter was first brought under my notice, I determined in my own mind what course I would take, but really I cannot recollect now, whether I suggested to Colonel Reader that I should call 4 —l. 4a.