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Q.-That was the routine of the office, that the office was left open, and that these drafts and précis were left open too?
A. Yes, in the manner I have told you.
Q.-So that anybody who got access to the Surveyor General's office could read the whole of them?
A.-If they felt so inclined I don't see what was to prevent them.
Q. Hon. F. B. JOHNSON.-But there must have been time, I should say, to copy the letter, not only to gain the substance, because we heard from Mr. LISTER that Mr. FRASER-SMITH seemed to have a string of letters. That could not be obtained by an Overseer; it must have been by someone well acquainted with the details of your depart- ment. Don't you agree with me?
A.-I don't know what information he was possessed of.
Q. He had a copy of this letter, and references to a series of letters. That could not have been arrived at by strangers looking over your desk.
A.-Hardly, I should think.
Q.-Have you ever had any communication with Mr. FRASER-SMITH On this subject?
A.-Never once.
Q. We have heard it said that Chinese are in the habit of giving perquisites to officers in the department, and especially it has been brought to our notice that it is a common thing for them to give payment to Overseers who make out bills for them, that is to say, Overseers who measure work, and you have told us you have made out bills for Chinese. Have
offered to you? you ever had
money
A. Not by any one since I have been in the department, not in one instance..
Q. Hon. A. LISTER.-Under the circumstances you describe, is it not very likely a system would grow up that when Mr. PRICE wrote anything in a letter that was at all racy or amusing it would be handed round this waiting room, would be passed on as a joke from one to another?
A.-No.
Q-That was never done in your time?
A.-No, by no means; in fact personally I was always very strict on the subject of this correspondence, and I was always as careful as I could be, as time would permit me in the office.
Q-Hon. F. B. JOHNSON.-It would be passed through no hands but yours until it got to the Colonial Secretary's Office?
A.--I am confident it did not pass through any one's hands but my own from the time it left Mr. PRICE's hands until it was sent with the chit book to the Colonial Secretary's Office.