Barely a year after the Commissioners of the Branch Railways in New Brunswick accused
Premier The details of the administrative structure of the Crown Lands Department are very involved,
though dealt with thoroughly in the lengthy introduction to the Commission. Commissioners
The report was clear: "having in view the testimony given by the different contributors the
only conclusion that seems possible to us is that the money was actually extorted." The only
other question dealt with was assignation of guilt. William Berry was unassailably guilty. As
Chief Superintendent of Scalers, it was Berry who personally collected the illegal contribution of
the Province's lumber companies. The guilt of Flemming was less clear. All the circumstantial evidence pointed to Flemming's guilt. The report stated that he could
not have possibly been ignorant of Berry's activities. It is also clear that once the illegal monies
were collected, Flemming directed their expenditure. Nonetheless, the Commissioners could not
produce enough corroborative evidence to prove that Flemming was directly involved in the
extortion scheme, and, as a result, was found not guilty by the Commissioners. h.c. Commissioners:
Documents Available for Viewing
Title Acrobat HTML Images Main Report pdf Header only gif Enabling Legislation pdf Header only included with Main Report Bibliographic Information
View the file's header (TEI format) which contains bibliographic information about the print and electronic versions of the report of this Commission.
