EVIDENCE DENIED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 183, 4 August 1932, Page 7

EVIDENCE DENIED.

Conflicting Stories At Tin

Hare Inquiry.

"JUDGE" SWINDELL RECALLED

SYDNEY, August 3,

Frederick Cowdroy stated in evidence before the Royal Commission investigating tin hares and fruit machines, that he had given Frederick ("Judge") Swindell £1000 in notes "to allow him to form a company and secure a license for greyhound racing at Wollongong."

Witness said he received no receipt and was not told anything about the destination of the money. Swindell had told him he could not get the license without money.

The Commissioner (Judge Halse Rogers): You believed that if you did not pay £1000 you would not be able to get the license?

Witness: Yes. The money was paid on January 0 and the license was granted on January 20.

I take it you assumed that the Chief Secretary, Mr. Gosling, knew Swindell was helping you to procure the license ?—No.

Why did you not say to the Minister, "What right has this man Swindell to interfere?" —It never occurred to, me. I was paying good money to get something.

You simply trusted in Providence? — Yes. Swindell said, "You will have to trust me," and I did.

Frederick Swindell, recalled, denied Cowdroy's evidence. He was emphatic that no money was received although he said there was a discussion about a license for Wollongong. Swindell also denied acquaintance with Mr. Lang, whom he said he had never met.

Witness explained several payments to Mr. Keighery by stating that Keighery had to do. a lot of entertaining. His hand was always in his pocket. He was a sort of contact man. Swindell then explained his relations with Jack Munro, saying that Munro at one stage gave him the impression he was "fed up" with things generally and being harassed by his creditors —the Australian Coursing Company.

Witness said ho offered Munro 10,000 shares and between £3000 and £4000 in cash to pay his debts, but the offer was rejected. Swindell denied that there was enmity between himself and Munro. The hearing was again adjourned.

MARITAL TROUBLES.

VIEWS OF BACHELOR JUDGE. LONDON, July 30. "Why not recognise the obvious truth that half the present divorces are due to sexual maladjustment?" asked the bachelor judge, Mr. Justice McCardie, during an outspoken analysis of modern matrimonial troubles. The judge made his observations during a case at Birmingham Assizes in which a husband petitioned for a divorce. "The truth is kept back until people ask, 'What's the meaning of all this divorce?'" he said. "If they came to the Courts and heard the cases they would realise that they are due to the failures, miseries, and tragedies of married life." Referring to Lord Merrivale's ruling of 1927, he said: "I cannot see all. the evils Lord Merrivale saw. The Constitution would not fall because of a little recognition of life's actual facts. I hope that the time is approaching for a farrreaching reform in the divorce law, enshrining broader and more liberal views." In another case, Mr. Justice McCardie criticised the inadequacy of the legitimacy laws, and promised to attempt to expedite a decree to enable an expected child to be born in wedlock. Later, when summing up a case in which a husband claimed damages, the judge said that the jury was confronted with a most degrading aspect of British Divorce Court jurisdiction, the husband seeking to profit by his wife's dishonour. He explained that a wife was an asset when she possessed a substantial income or earned good nioney, or was a good housekeeper, working for love. But many wives were utterly worthless to husbands, and many husbands were worthless to wives. "In this case," he added, "the wife is only 18 and was drinking repeatedly. The husband ill-treated her and encouraged her relations with the co-respon-dent." The jury awarded no damages.