PREMIER'S INTEREST

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 119, 22 May 1930, Page 11

PREMIER'S INTEREST

STATE "WHITE ELEPHANTS"

MUNGANA AND CHILLAGOE

(Received 22nd May, 8 p.m.)

BRISBANE, This Day. . The ex-Premier of Queensland, Mr. W. M'Cormack's interest in the- Muugana mining leases and his Government's assistar.ee to the Chillagoe smelters some years back were the. sub,ioct of further evidence before the Royal Commission inquiring into the matter. Peter M'Caffrey, Senior Inspector of tho Audit Department, xelated that.while M'Cormaek was Premier in 1926 he told M'Cormaek that the Chillagoo .smelters wero an absolute white olephant and tho losses on.them £100,000 a year. M'Oprmaek asked him to make a thorough investigation and furnish a report to him'and not to the Auditor-General. The witness also told him that Godtlard, who was closely identified with tho Mungana leases, was greatly worried about Mungana, tho capital cost of which had risen £200,000. M'Cormaek replied: "-What has he to worry about over Mungana? That is my pigeon and Theodore's, not his." ■ M'Caffrey said that he believed the Auditor-General's report in 1923-24 concerning the Chillagoe smelters was falsified. '. '. ■ ■