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Q.-Then all I have to say is, you and the others must have conducted your busi- ness very carelessly if letters are left about so that any one can read them.
A.-Letters are not habitually left.
Q.-But they must be if that is the explanation, because it is inconceivable that anyone should read this particular letter unless strangers are in the habit of reading
letters.
A.-I know that on more than one occasion I did complain of the fact of these Overseers being allowed to wait in that room.
Q. How many letters pass through your department in a similar way to that letter?
A. In 1882, some fifteen or sixteen hundred.
Q.-That is five or six letters a day. I suppose your suspicion is that this letter was read accidentally, or is it that these five or six letters are generally read?
A.-No, they are not generally read, because during the time I was there I took the greatest care and tried to prevent their being read.
Q.-But there is no difficulty that I can see.
your desk and read a letter you have just left.
A. Of course he would not.
Q.-Well, explain.
An Overseer would not go up to
A. He may have read the letter during the time I was absent from the office, Mr. PRICE or Mr. BOWDLER will call me perhaps fifteen or twenty times a day.
Q.-But you say there are three persons in your
A.-Yes.
office.
Q. Can any stranger take a letter from your desk without either of the other. two being cognisant of it.
A.-It might be so.
Q.-It is your practice then to leave letters open on your desk, to which strangers have access?
A.-If I was writing a letter when I went out it was always covered with my blotting pad.
Q.-The CHAIRMAN.-Where are the drafts filed in your office? Now you speak of a précis, is it a précis or a draft?
A.-A draft.
Q.-After you have written it out is that submitted to Mr. PRICE for his signature?
A.-It is.
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