TIMBER LEASE CASE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26703, 24 February 1948, Page 5

TIMBER LEASE CASE

CONSPIRACY AND FRAUD CHARGES

FEDERAL COURT HEARING Rec. 11.30 p.m. SYDNEY, Feb. 23. J. S. Garden told him that when the syndicate of four sold a New Guinea timber lease they had no lease, but hoped to get one, said Detective Inspector Wilks in the Special Federal Court to-day, when Garden and his ( son, Harcourt Garden, and Raymond Parer and Edward Farrell were charged with conspiring with one another to cheat and defraud Hancock and Gore (a Brisbane timber firm) of large sums of money. He showed Garden a copy of an agreement between Parer, Harcourt Garden, Farrell, and John Smith Garden, which, he said, was to dispose of a lease allegedly held by Parer for the New Guinea Timber Company for £ 100,000. Garden admitted that at that time the syndicate had no lease bu, he hoped to secure one from the Minister. Garden added his son’s name to the agreement because Farreil wanted four signatures. Garden according to Inspector Wilks, said on November 1, 1945 that £12.500 was received from the company and divided equally between himself, Farrell, and Parer, but nothing was paidto Harcourt, who knew nothing about the whole transaction. . _ . . Mr E. J Ward, Minister of External Territories, gave evidence largely on the lines of the earlier case. He said that Garden mentioned that Parer intended to apply for a timber concession and Garden repeatedly pressed him to grant it to Parer Mr Ward said that he always replied that it was a matter for consideration by the department.