PERJURY CASE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 76, 1 April 1910, Page 7

PERJURY CASE.

ADMISSION BY A WITNESS. By Telegraph.— Press Aitociation.— Copyright. MELBOURNE, 31st March. A witness in the conspiracy cases arising out of the Ronald-Harper libel action admitted that he committed perjury iv that action because he was promised a good position. In February last, Patrick Hill, ex-pos-tal employee, was committed for trial on <two charges of suborning witnesses in •the Ronald-Harper libel case. The Rev. J. D. Ronald, it will be remembered, sued Mr. Robert Harper, who represents Mernda (Victoria) in the Federal House of Representatives, for £3000 damages for libel, and a verdict was given last May for defendant. Some of the witnesses iv the case against Hill deposed that Hill, who claimed to be acting on behalf of Harper, offered them considerable sums and promised them permanent situations it they would give ovidence against Ronald. They alleged that tho ovidence they gave in the libel action was manufactured and false. The plea of justification which was entered | by defendant in the slander action had as a basis the alleged conduct of Mr. Ronald in telling improper stories and using indecent language. Robert Harper and William Harper, merchants, Walter Kemp, and William Brocket, solicitors, Patrick Hill, und John Heatuley are now being charged with conspiring to pervert and defeat the law and justice, and unjustly to influence the verdict of the jury in favour of the defendant in the case.