CHARGE OF BLACKMAIL.
SYDNEY, Nov. 23. In the Assembly, during the debate on the Civic Commission Bill, Mr Foster (Nationalist) made allegations that blackmail and toll were levied by the City Council officials. He said about four years ago he received a message that a certain official of the City Council wished to see him in regard to something wrongly done, in connection with one of his buildings. The official told him there was something scandalously wrong with the building. Roster said: “Then we must see your chief about it.”
The official replied: “it is unnecessary to go so high.” Together they went into variations in the building from the schedule and he indicated that the variations all erred on tlie side of additional strength. Foster then asked him how he could justify the word “ scandalous,” and lie replied lie could arrange the matter, as Alderman Bramston could square it. The ease was not reported nor did the official ever intend to report it, and it was sufficient evidence that blackmail or toll was exacted by officials of tlie Council.
Then, amid scenes of indescribable uproar, in which all coherence vanished, the third reading was gagged through and the bill was sent to the Legislative Council.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HOG19271123.2.38
Bibliographic details
Hokitika Guardian, 23 November 1927, Page 3
Word Count
206CHARGE OF BLACKMAIL. Hokitika Guardian, 23 November 1927, Page 3
Using This Item
The Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd is the copyright owner for the Hokitika Guardian. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in