LOAN INTEREST DEFAULT.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20499, 18 March 1932, Page 11

LOAN INTEREST DEFAULT.

FEDERAL ACT TO FORCE PAYMENT. VALIDITY QUESTIONED. (UNITED PBESS ASSOCIATION—BT ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH—COPYRIGHT.) (Received March 17th, 10.35 p.m.) CANBERRA, March 17. The resolution giving effect to the Financial Agreement Enforcement Bill having passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the Prime Minister, Mr J. A. Lyons, stated to-day it was unlikely that the issue of the proclamation for the attachment of New South Wales revenue would be delayed for any considerable period. The Government, however, was prepared to wait a few days for tho decision of the High Court in regard to the validity of the Act. Provided the Act is valid, the Premier, Mr J. T. Lang, or his Ministers, will become liablo to a fine of £SOO and imprisonment for two years if ho or they permit the payment of any incomo tax to the State after the issue of tho proclamation. It will also be illegal for any person to pay money to the New South Wales collecting authorities. Injunction Sought. A Melbourne message reports: The High Court l>egan the hearing of the Now South Wales application for an injunction to-day. Mr J. A. Browne. K.C., appearing for the New South Wales Government, argued that the - Enforcement Act might prevent the New South Wales Government carrying on. Even tho. unemployed might not bo provided for. The Chief Justice. Sir Gavan Duffy: It is not a question of the consequences; it is a question of what we are authorised to do. Tho hearing was adjourned till Tuesday, counsel for the Commonwealth, Mr Ham, K.C., refusing to give ftnv undertaking in regard to the Commonwealth's intentions. ENFORCEMENT ACT. PROCLAMATION DELAYED. CANBERRA, March 17. The financial Argeement Enforcement Bill was adopted in the Senate. It is understood that as the High Court to-day will hoar argument in the matter, the Federal Ministry will not issue the proclamation to-day. The State of New South Wales coun-ter-claims for a total amount of £2,346,655 for money payable to the State under the Federal roads agreement and other accounts. TIN-HARE RACING. INCRIMINATING DOCUMENTS WITHHELD. SYDNEY. March 16. Detective-Superintendent Maokay interviewed Mr B. S. B. Stevens (actingleader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly) and asked liim for the documents and declarations involved in his recent mechanical hareracing exposures. Mr Stevens refused, and subsequently made a statement that "If these documents are handed to the police they will be transmitted to the Ministers concerned themselves, and I have no confidence that those Ministers will institute proceedings against themselves. I regard the action of the Premier (Mr J. T. Lang) in referring this matter to the police as a clumsv and brazen attempt to evade a judicial enquiry, which alone would have e full powers of eliciting the truth, ' BROADCASTING. AUSTRALIAN BILL AMENDED. NO ADVERTISING IN A CLASS PROGRAMMES. (Received March 17th, 8.10 p.m.) - CANBERRA, March 17. As a result of strong protests, the Government announces radical amendments of the Broadcasting Bill.. The chief alterations are the removal of ihe Broadcasting Commission from political control, and the disallowance or any form of advertising in the programmes of A class stations. OLD MAN MURDERED. ONE OF TWO ASSAILANTS CONFESSES. (Received March 17th, 8.15 p.m.) SYDNEY, March 17. The inquest into the death of Alexander Barrie, aged eighty-five years, at Paddington, on December 14th, took a sensational turn to-day, when Leslie Skeen, a Crown witness turned King's evidence and confessed that he was associated with William Morton, who hit Barrie on the head with a revolver several times, and also struck Barrie's wife with a loaded hosepipe and then gagged her. Skeen said he merely held her while she was tied with a rope. Morton stole what money he could find. He (Morton) examined Barrie and remarked: "The old is dead." Skeen said he removed the gag from the old woman's mouth before he quitted the house, otherwise she might have died. The Coroner committed Morton and Skeen for trial on a charge of murder. [On March 9th, after a month's painstaking investigation, during which detectives, disguised as tramps, travelled throughout New South Wales, arrested William Morton on a charge of having murdered Alexander Barrie at Paddinpton on December 14th. The old. man's head was battered, and his wife, who hastened to assist, him, was brutally assaulted. Barrie was reported to have been in the habit or keeping a largo sum of money in his house, becaufce he feared to deal with the banks.]