HUSH MONEY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1742, 2 August 1905, Page 30

HUSH MONEY.

THE WILLIS PROSECUTION.

SYDNEY, July 31. W. B. Melville made a statement before the Lands Commission to-day in regard to the evidence given last Friday by John Haynes, who charged Melville with having offered him, on the strength of a telegram from W. N. Willis, at Perth, £SOO to stop the Court proceedings instituted by Haynes against Willis. In his evidence to-day, Melville admitted having offered , Haynes £SOO, but said it was offered not to stop legal proceedings, but to stop venomous newspaper attacks which were causing Mrs Willis and family much distress. Witness detailed the interviews he had with Haynes, who said he was sorry for Mrs Willis, but she must not take it all as against Willis—-he didn’t care twopence for him, and had no feeling against him, but wanted to get at Mr Carruthers and Mr Ashton. Willis was simply nothing. It was “the other fellows —the pious hypocrites”—he would bring down.

. Melville declared that Haynes aske<l how much Willis would stand. Melville replied that he thought about £SOO, and Haynes then said: “Get th# money, and 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 reluctance to produce his telegram to Willis, but ultimately did so. On the face of it, the message does not seem to indicate that the money was to stop newspaper attacks. Haynes was recalled, and emphatically asserted that the money was offered to stop legal proceedings. He visited Melville in the hope of getting possession of the telegram. SYDNEY, July 31. The Full Court has fined Mi ’Haynes, the publisher of “Newsletter,” £SO and costs for commenting on W. N. Willis’s case while an action by the latter for libel against the paper was pending. \ . .