SYDNEY COAL CONTRACTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20024, 14 August 1928, Page 9

SYDNEY COAL CONTRACTS.

ALLEGATIONS OF BRIBERY. G!VIC OFFICIALS INVOLVED. EVIDENCE AS TO PAYMENTS. (Received August 13, 7.56 p.m.) SYDNEY. Aug. 13. Mr. Justice Thomson, Hie Royal Commissioner appointed to inquire into the matter of con 1 contracts entered into by the late Sydney City Council, resumed the inquiry to-day. At the first sitting on August 3, Mr. A. B. Shand, K.C., who is assisting the commissioner, outlined the proposed evidence. He said testimony would be produced to show that payments were made by various persons to influence the placing of contracts for the supply of coal.

One firm, Byrnes, Limited, had supplied coal for several years, and counsel alleged that officers of the council had received money which had not been traced after that. One alderman, who had since died, was alleged to have suggested raising the price of coal in a time of stress, the difference to be divided between certain aldermen.

Mr. Shand said he would prove the payment of £I2OO to Woof, a former powerhouse superintendent, cf £2OO to Silas Y. Maling, formerly deputy-manager of the city electricity department, £SOO to exAldermen Stokes and Holdsworth, and £2OO to ex-Aldermen Farrell and Brainstem

Evidence was called to-day in support of the allegations by Byrnes, Limited, that regular monthly payments had been made by that firm to an officer or officers of the council for six or eight years from 1914. The hearing was again adjourned.