HOLMAN'S BLACK RECORD.

NZ Truth, Issue 443, 13 December 1913, Page 1

HOLMAN'S BLACK RECORD.

A CROOKED CHAMELEONIC CAREER

(FROM SYDNEY "TRUTH,")

>.'■ That /William Arthur Holman should itave /the ■■jjiardihaod to perv sist iii Jjoiitical life, and that he ; has eveii beeti ||Pr«imer of the i State, and seekfi' "to occupy / that position again, is s an astonishing - outcome of sthfe fa^t that the people have but short memories, and ' that many episodes m the particn- - / larly shady cate^r of the shifty political adventurer and • wordepinner, Holinaii, {axe unknown to .the iirta jority - of title .. electors^- -In •'./. &ase auyvof then). ;- should Mow, however, HounanMbell^ them m what he said m public the other iday y at Junee, thaj .: "If a Minister o£: the Crtxwn robbed ' his gradmother of £150, It would not hi be a public .matter. Only if it- was al/c leged that he robtwfl trio State of any < earn would It be a public matter afi fectJhgr Itia Ministerial conduct." , '^yiiat a ; pernicio|is ddetnhe to place before the people ! A Mm:- -: ister of the Crowii may be a thief 1 and so mean and scouudeelly a r thief that he would rob the aged , mother of one of fiis own pareuts, and Holman thinks that the fact of the Minister being' a robber — and sach a robber, too!~is "not '.a public matter"! ; Why Holman thinks that the 'private turpitude of a Minister of the Crown should not to considered to be a "public matter," is illustrated by his^ own rascally career, as repeatedly exposed m Sydney " Truth, "tffo'im; a : number ol! years past.^t We have gone back as far as ' 1893 iv ouiv analysis of the career of Holman. In that year, by means of a letter; from -%ttiiential" ppliticiaris, lie secured the paid secretaryship of the New South Wales Amalgamated and Tramway Service Association. . He put m much' of: his time while Hccretary of the association m tho pulling of politico^ wires. Possibly the discovery ]<>£ this fact by the members mny' explain why it j was that he did not long retain ! y billet as seeiotiary. Iv 18D4, Holman and his pals j '(one of them !« fellow who has/ \ been cqnvictijd cl exposing him- ' self indecently)/ obtained control [ of the Centi*a].^>riimittee of the Political I/udoV lieague. This fcjman-cotfitrolled body w«r sub.i j^B^y t^nsnred by the L^bor '^^BBl^npc for haying taken £5 Hci^inald Black to *f he rctir<;ment of the Labor 'iandidate for WarrmgaU, for whiM* , electorate Roginald yilfaek v\m running as a eandiv. date. ; In tli|iit «amn year, 1894, a fellow iftimcd Willard, one of TlolnfanV i-'UK who lodged m his (Hohnan &) tnothfir's Jiouse, nud was his room-mate, got on the electoral roll by making a fnlae declaration as to tlio number of months ho had been m Syduey. By means of this false declara. tion, he improperly obtained an clcotor's right, on« of the documc*nt« then used to show that v jnau had a right to vote. No man could becoittc a candidate for Parliament unless ho possessed one of those rights. Willard wa« then told by his pal, lloliuan, of a "good thing" iv tho Tweed electorate. A considerable number of DftvvicH wcro tlmrc, working on the extension of th« railway line from LiHinor« to .MunnlJumbah. That they would volt? for a Labor candidato was ncrUiu. It was also pretty clear that' they woro >troug enough«^-whilo they wctc

working m the Tweed electorate, —to elect a candidate. Wiilard, having learnt of this "plum," this "soft snap, "from Holman, went up to the Twced> and was elected. The fellow was a bankrupt Bris- j bane commission agent, and was an unscrupulous scoundrel. It was subsequently proved that he ■ was not qualified to hold the Right that lie fca& obtained by a false dißclaratibn, aiici ho was put .upon his trial m, Brisbane: f or- al- i legedly siekling registered, Jotter j receipts that proved hiim to ,huye been m Brisbane when .lie, said hej was m Sj'dney. He was acquit-! ted, but the presiding Judge, Sir! Samuel Griffith, now Chief Jus-! tice of ■- the\ told Wiilard, Ho\ ian J s pal, bed toomrnate, and political protege, that he v iuight consider himself on exceedingly fortunate man. Holman gave evidence, before a Select Cdinriiittee of Parliaiueht, which was m corrpboration of that given by Wiilard, m whibh Wiilard per j uriously stated tha t lie had lived long enough m Leichliardt, where Hdlman's residence was, to qualify him for the Right. The Select Committee did riot believe Wiilard,, and apparently attached little or no weight to Ilolman 's corroboratipn of Wiilard. Holman was/ m 189*, a candidate for Leichliardt^ and it was alleged that there was an understanding between him and Willard that tho latter should resign the Tweed seat should the" lormar be defeated for Leichhardt,. as he was. Wiilard, however, before the Select Committee, denied that this arrangement existed, but the man Was so unscrupulous a per jurer that no weight con bo attached to his . testimony on this point ono way or the other. Now there comes the matter of the "Daily Post" ' swindle. When reproached with his conduct concerning this altair, Holman has had the "hide" to say that he invested his own "savings" m the concern. This statement of his was simply an attempt to deceive. If he had any savings to invest m the "Daily Post," they were ridiculously small. He merely held three i shares m the "Daily Post" company. These sbaies.wcrc a contri buting, ' ' and it is not probable that he had j)aid more than two shillings on each share, a total payment of six shillings! Even if the shares were fully paid up, which is highly improbable, the amount he paid would only be thirty shUHiigs; for the full price of each sharo was only ten shillings. The "Daily Post" was always a rotten concern, and at a meeting m 1003, Uoliuuu and Co. actually circulated a falsu balance-sheet. Accountant John Wharric went to the meeting of shareholders. to expo.se the .falsity of this sheet, Holman \s jackals were incited by Holmau to attack the honest accountant; and they did howl at Wharrie, hustle him, tear his clothes, and violently expel him from the room. At last, however, some of the Ilolman gang "fell m." By false representations, they induced a working man named Hi.slop, ami his wife, to lend them £200 on the machinery, llolmftn and Co. concealing the fact from the Hislops that it was already mortgaged, and promising to repay them the money out of the. capital received

m payment for shares. The Hislops were not repaid, and m March, '1606; Holman. Smith, Ellis, and Woolridge were convicted before 'Judge Rogers of conspiracy to clefraud the Hislops. As j his Honor Judge .Rogers looked upon Hobnan arid Smith as the moving spirits m the swindle, he sentenced them each to two years' imprisonment^ Jus H(mor remarking that what &^le their conduct worse was the saet that they had defrauded "one of their own class." Hplman and the rest went to gaol pending ah appeal ; and a " devil of a sweat" wasl Holman m because of his predicament. Poor Sam Smith (who afterwards went insane) .k^)t' a stin 3 upper lip,- but Holman 'funked and whined like niany; another conceited fellow whp thinks that he is entitled to do as he pleases, and who, when he hits his head against the stone wall of the law, at once begins to cry out that it hurts him. The appeal was on quite a technical point, the Legislature had recently passed a law, entitling an accused person to give evidence m his own; favor, Judge Kogors interpreted this law to mean that, if an accused person elected' to make a statement m. Court, he could not also give evidence, but must do cither one or the other. The Full Court disagreed with Judge Rogers, and quashed the conviction. The quashing of the conviction need not have settled matters, it was still open to the Crown Law authorities to order another trial. This they did not do, however. Why? Well, Reid was m power then, and was depending » for his political liio upon the support of the Labor Party, possibly this is the reason. why Holman and Co. escaped being sent up for trial aj second time. No wonder that the Premier was present at the Garden Party last Thursday "m honor of Sir George Reid!" The release of Holmau and his associate's was, indeed, a scandalous | miscarriage of justice. The Chief) Justice (the. late Sir Frederick Matthew Darley) at thu appeal; three times said emphatically, j "The Court thinks there ought to: be a new trial. ' ' Yet G. H. Raid ! s j Government released tho prison- 1 ers, and, topk no .steps to bring about a new trial. Truly Holman j ought to be graceful to Reid! I Then there is the matter of the valueless cheques .-that m 1898 he induced a certain woman to 'iccept and to give him her employer's good cheques m their place. , . One of the most scandalous of the episodes m Holmau 's career was when ho sent a fellow— the man whom wo have mentioned "as having committed an offence against duGuncy — to a ran-horso owner and beUine-mau, and offered to got four or live members of the Labor Party to vote against Reid, and thus secure his overthrow, if the racing man would guarantee their election expenses. Here we particularly sec thu treachery of the man. Tn spite of the fact that Reid had auved hi.n from tho danger of gaol, by notJ sending him for trial a second ! time, he wan willing to sell him j and the secrets of the Caucis, and to bring about his overturow if ouly the sporting ninn wms willing to pay the expenses of somo if the Lab >r members. It w true 'that HoluuLii is now oft'usively j welcoming Reid; but this only {shows tho shiftiness- and untrustworthiness of Holman's character. Another disgraceful cpisadc m the career of Holmau wits his defence of the release of the Jew "fence," Friedman. This was after he had become" a barrister. (His admission to tin? Bur had been I moved by Mr. B. R- Wise, and it iis quite possible that, but for ; Wise's influence, Holmait would ■wot have bc<» admitted. However, it was Attornoy-Ctoneral > Wise Avho released rYiedman, and m defending tin; cuiuiuct of Wise Mn so doing, Holrnan may only have beta' paying his debt of gratitude to Wise, nit hough them were rumors that Holraan w*ui, m jrcality, thereby paying another

kind of debt to Money-lender Friedman, the brother -of the released "fence."' Another shameful episode m the career of Holmau is with regard to monoy that be collected out West, when a paid" organiser for the 'Shearers' Union, for a dead and destitute shearer's funeral. This money he is said never to have accounted for. . This is the man who goes to England to join his wife there, and who sends his sister-in-law ahead of him at the State expense to a £5 a week billet. While there, "Lady" Holman holds ureceptions," if you please! Holman 'himself, does not mhjglo with the democracy of England. He does not associate with the hewers of wooci and drawers of water. He has .n?/iuing to say about men like John tturus, ThOs, Burt, Keir Hardie, Will Tliorne, Geo. Lansbury, Quelch, or Blatchford, and about the numerous other tine men who have fought the battle of the democracy m £ugliwd. But he is to be found colloguing with Conservatives at the Carltou Club, that stronghold of truculent Toryism arid plutish privilege. He has nothing to nay ' about the struggling union toilers and their tribunes, but ho has plenty to say about dukes and j duchesses and other members of

England's aristocracy. Furthermore, "Lady" Holman is allowed by Holman to poke her nose into electoral contests, to the disturbance and detriment of tho Labor Party, and to the great dis gust oT Labor Leaguers. She pro- ! wised to become a great nuisance and mischief -maker, and serious disturber of Labor Loague peace, but her conduct was so resented and protested against, that she was induced to withdraw her interfering nose from at least Dne contest. f Not content with the holding of "receptions'' at tho Colonial Secretary's office, "Jjady" Holmau is making an exhibition of luirself and her husband m other ways at other -so-called 4< swell" society slobbering, flap-doodling fuue tions. Talk about "the devil on horseback'"! Hf» is "merely a circumstance," merely like a man on a crippled moke, compared with Ilolman and his "Lady** on their political Pegasus. Really, this sort of thing has to bu put a stop to if the Labor Party is not to be completely diddled, doubly damned and done for over again and for ever. JOHN NORTON. Sydney. , * Saturday, November l*i, .Mi.