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Mr. Maginnity : No; but the case is already established in the petition. These are the charges that have been made against the men. The Chairman : We have to hear these charges. Mr. Maginnity : Very well; so far we are in accord. Now, the Committee in its deliberations will go further and consider what is contained in the file of papers. Now, I do not know what those papers contain, nor do these men. You will see what a serious disadvantage the men are labouring under. Mr. Graham has made a good suggestion —that is, to avoid the necessity of bringing these men back to Wellington they might be supplied with a copy of the correspondence, so that they might have an opportunity of perusing it; they can then present themselves to the Committee to-morrow morning, if desired. If it would be convenient to the Committee to adjourn the hearing until then, and meet as if these charges were properly formulated, we could look through the papers in order to meet the charges made in them. My anxiety is to enable the men's evidence to be taken now, so that they may return to their homes. They did not know until this morning that there are certain charges, or statements at any rate —I cannot say charges— made in the correspondence which took place after the hearing of the specific charges by Mr. Commissioner Tunbridge in Nelson. If the Commissioner will lend us his file of correspondence—l presume you will take the evidence on oath, Mr. Chairman —I will to-morrow examine the men upon anything that bears on the matter of this correspondence, which I believe the Committee propose to peruse before they make their recommendation to Parliament. Some discussion took place at this stage, in the course of which Commissioner Tunbridge said, Might Ibe allowed to dispel some misapprehension which there appears to be on the matter ? I understand that the Committee propose to adjourn the investigation till to-morrow morning in order to enable the ex-constables and their representative to peruse this file of papers that I have here. Well, this is not the file that was laid on the table at all. Generally speaking, it is; but the file laid on the table of the House, I believe, contains matters which this one does not —matters of which I have no cognisance. I prepared the papers laid on the table from the Police Department, but since they left the Police Department I understand other documents have been added thereto in order to complete the file ; so that the file which I have here, although, generally speaking, a copy of that laid on the table of the House, is not an absolute copy. After further discussion it was agreed to adjourn the hearing of the case till Friday, the 29th August, at 10.30 a.m., in order to allow of Mr. Maginnity and ex-Constables Burrell and Durbridge to peruse the file of correspondence laid on the table of the House.

Friday, 29th August, 1902. (No. 2.) Mr. Maginnity: May it please the Committee, I have had the opportunity, the Committee having been good enough to afford me the privilege, of going carefully through this very large file of correspondence with ex-Constables Burrell and Durbridge, and I think I may relieve the feelings of the Committee very much when I tell them that the thing is not so formidable as it appears. A large portion of the file—in fact, the major portion —is in connection with the complaints dealt with in the petition, so that until the proper time comes that need not occupy the attention of the Committee, nor need I weary the Committee by referring to that evidence. It was taken by the Commissioner, and is here verbatim on the file, so the Committee will be able to refer to it at its convenience and at the proper time. Now, the complaints made against ex-Constables Burrell and Durbridge, outside of those in the petition, number eight altogether—three being against ex-Constable Durbridge and five against ex-Constable Burrell. The first of those against Durbridge is with reference to his arresting a youth named Walker, with another youth, who had been guilty of sundry thefts in Nelson, and who had taken their plunder some eight or nine miles up what is known as the Maungatapu Range —a range of historical notoriety, in the vicinity of which the noted murders took place many years ago. These lads had camped there, and it came to the knowledge of the police, as you will see by the reports on the file, that many thefts had taken place; and I expect it also came to their knowledge that Walker was in some way connected with these thefts. The matter was put into the hands of Constables Kemp and Durbridge. Kemp is not here, but probably the Committee will have an opportunity of hearing him before deliberating on the case. At any rate, to make a long story short, the constables traced, through information obtained from one of the guilty persons —a lad named Howard—the whereabouts of Walker, and followed him up the Maungatapu. Howard had cautioned the constables that they must be very careful, otherwise Walker would take to the bush, and they would lose him. I may say, parenthetically, that the statements made with regard to Walker occupy the greater part of what I may call the first part of this file—that is, if we consider the file divided into two parts —the first of which, up to about page 144, deals with the eight charges. The greater portion of this evidence, as I say, deals with the complaints of Walker, and others who sympathized with him, though, I am pleased to say, these were not many. Walker makes many statements. I would ask the Committee particularly to note, in going through the file, that his statements in regard to cruelty or rough usage by the police are contradicted by Howard, his colleague in the thefts, and are contradicted by his own relations, who admit —and it is on record here, gentlemen—that Walker was treated with every kindness and consideration. Now, you will readily realise that if two young men are guilty of many thefts, establish a camp in the bush, and are known to have firearms, and so on, it is a case where the police have reason to deal with them in the most careful manner, and, if they think the lads are going to evade arrest, to take more than ordinary precautions, even to the extent of putting handcuffs on them and making them fast. That was done in this case, and that was all that was