this chapter to see whether his purchasing activities were at odds with his official position.

3.1 Richard Gill’s career

Richard John Gill appears to have left very little in the way of personal papers. There is also very little archival material where Gill or others directly discuss his purchasing activities or the circumstances surrounding them. This makes any commentary on Gill’s actions and intentions speculative rather than conclusive. However, the bare facts of his career, which are outlined in this section, give a rough indication of Gill’s modus operandi.

Gill was a government employee from December 1864 and remained so for most of his life.⁵⁵ There is, therefore, a question of a conflict of interest arising from Gill’s purchasing activities. As Clerk to the Resident Magistrate, Gill had only a minor role in Crown affairs, but nonetheless, the legitimacy of the transactions he was involved in is called into question, especially where he purchased reserves from individuals that had been granted in trust for hapu. As Gill had witnessed the Ngai Te Rangi deed, it is reasonable to expect that he would have been familiar with the Katikati-Te Puna reserves and the details of their allocation.

H. T. Clarke was the senior Crown official in the district, but it seems that Gill was closely involved in official business there as well.⁵⁶ On at least one known occasion, Gill deputised for Clarke.⁵⁷ Clarke, it seems, had a high opinion of Gill. In a letter written in August 1865 to T. H. Smith, Civil Commissioner for the Bay of Plenty, Clarke reported that ‘I have a capital fellow in Gill who is as much interested in matters as we are’.⁵⁸ By this, it is assumed that Gill was concerned with local affairs. Gill was certainly well-known in the district as a business man. Even in his spare time his administrative and accounting skills were called upon: in December

⁵⁵ ‘Return of Officers in the Employ of the Government’, AJHR 1866, D-3, p. 65; New Zealand Herald, 24 December 1910, p. 8.

⁵⁶ One of the tasks Gill carried out was copying incoming and outgoing correspondence. See H. T. Clarke to T. H. Smith, Letters to T. H. Smith (typescript), Tauranga District Library (TDL).

⁵⁷ Gill to Agent for General Government, 20 May 1869, AGG-A 1 69/373 box 4, NA.

⁵⁸ H. T. Clarke to T. H. Smith, 5 August 1865, Letters to T. H. Smith (typescript), TDL.