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Q.But before?
A.-No; but at the time the trial was going on it was in every one's mouth.
Q. Did you hear anyone say he knew well enough there was a particular case?
A.-No.
Q. When people are being talked about there is generally some one who professes to know more than others?
A. Yes, they know more than we do in the department, but I would not trust
them.
Q.—Hon. A. LISTER.-Do you know anything about a practice said to prevail in the department, that one of the clerks gets one per cent for helping the Contractors to
make out their bills?
A.—I have heard it, but I don't know whether it is true or not.
Q.-Have you heard it often?
A.-No; it was just after I came. The Contractor wanted me to make out a bill
I said "No; you must find your own clerk; it is not my business?"
Q. Do you know to whom he took the bill then?
A.--No.
Q.-He wanted some assistance?
A. Yes. None of the Contractors can write English and they want some one to write out their bills, but I don't know whether they give them anything for doing so, or whether it is done in Government time.
Q.—But there is that fact, that they cannot write English and want assistance?
A.-There are two or three Contractors who cannot write English, and their bills come to this department, but not in the handwriting of any one in the department. One Contractor gets a schoolmaster to write them for him.
Q.-One witness said it was almost a recognised thing that one of the clerks gets one per cent, he believed, for making out bills, and you seem to have heard of it?
A. That was just when I came, two and a half years ago.
Q. Did you hear any particular Clerk named?
A.-No.
Q. Is there any particular Clerk who makes out a good many of these bills?
A.-They don't come into my charge, not a single one.
Q. Do you see the bills?
A.-I have to pass them every month.