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New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23850, 28 December 1940, Page 9

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| RELEASE OF TRAUTWEIN NOTED TAXATION CASE | ILLNESS AND DYING WIFE | [from our own corrkspondknt] SYDNEY, Dec. 20 i A former member of the Legislative I Assembly and a prominent hotel proprietor and racehorse owner. Mr. Theo- | dore C. Trautwein, lias been released I from gaol after serving only seven I months of a sentence of 12 months. It • is unusual to reduce such a sentence to ; less than nine months. Trautwein was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment on May 20, 1940, for having made untrue representations to the taxation : authorities regarding his financial affairs. The Federal Attorney-General. Mr. Hughes, who announced the decision to release Trautwein, said: "Trautwein would have had only another two months to serve. He is 72 and is a very sick man, and his wife is dying.'' J rautwcin was charged with having untruly represented to the Taxation Commissioners that an agreement purporting to have been signed by himself, his wife and son and daughter was genuine. This agreement was made after discussions between Trautwein and the Federal and State Taxation Commissioners. Trautwein had offered to pay £298,000 taxation liabilities by instalments, but the commissioners replied that this would not be acceptable unless a charge was given by Irautwein and members of his family over certain assets held in their respective names. Ihese were estimated at approximately £130,000 net. On August 4. 1938, an agreement purporting to be signed and witnessed was taken to the Commonwealth Crown Solicitors office, with a letter signed by Trautwein. Trautwein promised by agreement to pay his taxation liabilities to June, 1936, at £28,000 a year. When Trautwein was convicted, it was stated that lie owed the Federal and State 'taxation Departments £323.733. An appeal against the conviction. in May was unsuccessful, and Trautwein entered Goulburn gaol on May 20. Oil the petition of the Taxation Commissioner, Trautwein was declared bankrupt, and the investigation into his financial affairs is still proceeding. BLAZING SHIP SAVED COLOURED MAN'S HEROISM CREW RECALLED BY CAPTAIN [from oi r OWN" cokkkspondf.nt] LONDON, Dec. 1 After the crew of a bombed and blazing British ship had taken to a lifeboat, the captain decided that bis ship still had a fighting chance, recalled his men. put the fire out and brought his ship home. One hero of this story is a coloured man, George Taylor, whose home is in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa. With a bullet wound in one eye and half-blinded in the other he stuck to the wheel on the bridge, obeying his captain's orders, as the slow-moving ship did her best to j elude the raider. 1 aylor. one bright brown eye peering j from a bandaged head, yesterday in- j sisted that he had done nothing. "Cap- ] tain Thomas, my skipper, was great," he said in a Scottish eye hospital. "He j did everything for the ship and her j crew that any man could have done. If 1 I can go back with one eye I'd like to ! sail with him again." "For an hour we dodged as the aero- i plane came tearing down to us with its I machine-guns rattling," Taylor said, it, was at this point that lie stopped a bullet and became a hero. Crouching on the deck clutching the spokes with one hand and with bis brain just able to I interpret his captain's orders, he car- ! ried on for another hour. Ily that timo the whole ship was blazing, and orders were given to abandon her. ' 'We had one lifeboat and a dinghy left. Taylor said. "Everyone got into the boat except the captain, the chief and second engineers, two radio men, the cabin boy and myself. After the boat had got away. Captain Thomas inspected the damage, decided that his ship was not vet lost, and with a signal lamp recalled the boat, A warship which had answered the ship's S.O.S. before her radio had been blown' to pieces was told. 'We are managing nicely, thank you, and do not require help.'