A "FRAME UP."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 134, 8 June 1932, Page 7

A "FRAME UP."

ASSAULT ON GARDEN

Allegation By New South Wales

Premier,

AMPLE EVIDENCE

(United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright)

(Received 10 a.m.) SYDNEY, this day.

Though Mr. J. T. Lang estimated that his Government's deficit for this year would he about £6,000,000, Treasury figures submitted to Mr. B. S. Stevens show the deficit to be £11,700,000.

Speaking at Belmore, Mr. Stevens stated that the average weekly revenue of the Government Departments, excluding income tax collections, had increased by more than one-third since his Government came into oflice.

Mr, Stevens has released the police report on the recent alleged assault on Alderman J. S. Garden by members of the New Guard. According to the police one of the persons who was alleged to have taken part in the assault was subsequently found sitting in Mr. Garden's office waiting to bo arrested.

The Premier has also been advised that copies of certain police reports regarding the New Guard have apparently been stolen. Mr. Stevens said that ample evidence had been placed before him to confirm the allegations in connection with the New Guard and the Garden episode as outlined in Parliament by Mr. R. Weaver, deputy-Leader of the Opposition before Lang's dismissal.

A message from Sydney on May 11 stated: There was unreal' in tlie Legislative Assembly to-day when Mr. I\. Weaver, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, moved for a Royal Commission "to inquire into the actions of certain members of the Cabinet in entering into a conspiracy with a man named Captain Wavneford, lately a member of the New Guard, to break the law bv the recent essault on Mr. J. S. Garden." Mr. Weaver asserted that Captain Warneford, acting under instructions from flic Government.

and at a payment of £6 a week, bad organised the Fascist Lesion, embracing New Guardsmen, without the authority of the New Guard. This, be declared, bad culminated in the attack on Mr. Garden. The whole thing was a "frame up."

The Attorney General. Mr. J. Lamaro, replied that it was quite impossible to grant a Royal Commission. He doubted whether Mr. Weaver himself believed what he had told the House. There was not one word of truth in the allegation against Ministers. However, the best answer was the fact that the men who had assaulted Mr. Garden had voluntarily pleaded guilty.

Mr. Weaver's motion was negatived on a purely party division.