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Q.-Have you formed any opinion of your own on the subject, or had you begun to form an opinion before this case cropped up?
A.-No.
Q.-You had not commenced to form an opinion?
A.-No; I was puzzled.
Q.-You were puzzled, you say?
A.-I was puzzled at the articles in the paper when I came to read them.
Q.-But have these articles been appearing the whole of the time you have been in the Colony?
A. Some appeared directly I came here.
Q.-So this kind of thing has been going on all the time you have been here?
A. Yes.
Q.-Could you give us any idea how long you had been in the Colony before it occurred to you that there was any whisper of bribery or corruption in the Survey Department?
A. The only idea I have at all is from these newspaper articles.
Q-Then of course they directed your attention to the subject-these newspaper articles and the talk about them?
A. Yes.
Q.-Have you seen anything yourself, or heard anything yourself, which would give you any information of your own on the point?
A.-No; I have not.
Q.-I suppose you know that most of the gentlemen who have been in the depart- ment, and have left and gone into private practice here have more or less committed themselves to a strong opinion that there is a good deal of bribery amongst the subor- dinates of the Surveyor General's Department?
A.—I have heard it said by the people, but not by them.
Q.-Well, I could name I think these people who I know have been in the Survey Department, and have left it, and then have had a very strong opinion on that subject. Have you begun to form any such opinion?
A.-No.
Q.-You have not?
A.-No.
Q.- -Of your own knowledge do you know anything of the giving of bribes, or any. persons being reported to receive bribes in the department?
A.-No.
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