THE LAND SCANDAL

Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1521, 1 August 1905, Page 2

THE LAND SCANDAL

THE ALLEGATION OF BRIBERY.

By telegraph, Press Ass’n', Copyright Received 10.20 p.m., July 31. Sydney, July 31. | |Mr Meltille made a statement at the Lauds Commisßion. Ho admitted that he hud offered Mr Haynes £SOO. It was not to stop legal proceedings, but to stop the venomous newspaper attacks, which were causing Mrs Willis and family much distress. Ho detailed the interviews that ho had had with Mr Haynes, who Buid he was sorry for Mrs Willis. He said she must not take it all as against Willis. He didn’t care twopence for him. He had no feeling against him, but he wonted to gel at Carruthers and Aston. .Willis was simply nothing. It was the other fellows, the pious hypocrites, he ha would bring down. Haynes asked how much Willis would stand. Melville thought about £SOO. Haynes said, “ Get the money; I’ll drop Willis out.”' Haynes visited witness at his private residence and urged him to communicate with Willis, as money was useful to him just now. Melville showed a reluctance to produce his telegram to Willis, but ultimately did so. On tho face it does not seem to indicate that the money was to stop newspaper attacks. Haynes, recalled, emphatically asserted that the money was offered to Btop legal proceedings. Ho visited Melville in the hope of getting possession of the telegram. The Full Court fined tho publisher of the Newsletter £SO and costs for commenting on Willis while an action by the latter for libel against the paper was pending.