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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 10

Page 80, Note 1

Page 80, Note 1.

In this Note it is asserted that "nearly twelve months of patient investigation" were expended on this case. Now Teira's offer was made on the 8th day of March, 1859, and the first instalment was paid on the 29th November, 1859. The whole investigation then lay between those two dates. We are also told that Mr. Parris' "inquiry was prolonged till the close of the year 1859; not from any doubt that existed as to the title, but in the hope that the opposing party might be brought to reason." (Pap. E, No. 3, p. 21)

page 21

A portion of time then, which we have no means of defining, is to be interposed between the time when all doubt had ceased as to the title, and the 29th of November. Moreover, Mr. Parris himself states that his inquiry was intermitted for two months, lest he should interfere with the negotiations for peace then pending between the Tribes. (Pap. E, No. 3A, p. 2.) What portion of the residue was actually employed on this particular business, it is impossible to ascertain, as there are no Minutes of his proceedings.

Yet in the Despatch to His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, dated 28th of June, 1860, it is stated that "nine months were occupied by persons constantly engaged in carefully considering and investigating this particular title." And now we are told that "nearly twelve months of patient investigation" were spent upon it.

I notice this, not because the matter in itself is of great moment; for the value of an investigation depends much more on the nature and method of it than on the length of time employed; but as an instance of a looseness of statement much to be regretted in official documents.