MUNGANA AFFAIR

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 197, 22 July 1931, Page 7

MUNGANA AFFAIR

QUEENSLAND ACTION. A CLAIM FOR DAMAGES. TREMENDOUS INTEREST. i • (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) BRISBANE, July 21. What has become known as the “Mungana action” will begin in the Supreme Court to-morrow before the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Blair, and a jury of four. The case is exciting tremendous interest throughout the Commonwealth. The statement of claim consists of 1600 words. The Queensland Government is suing for the recovery, of £30,000 from Edward Granville Theodore, Federal Treasurer, 'William McCormack, the former Premier, Peter Louis Goddard, and Frederick Reid. Briefly, the claim is one for damages for alleged conspiracy or, alternatively, damages arising from the fact that the defendants, Theodore and McCormack and Reid, agreed to give Goddard “a certain benefit in consideration of Goddard, as agent for the King, recommending or procuring the purchase by the Government of certain mines at Mungana, known as the ‘Lady Jane’ and the ‘Girofla,’ whereby the three defendants procured the purchase of the said mines by fraud.” The Crown seeks also an account and repayment of all profits /made by McCormack and Theodore arising out of such purchase “in breach of their duty as agents of the King.” Alternatively, the State seeks damages for conversion.