MALING'S DEFENCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 417, 27 July 1928, Page 9

MALING'S DEFENCE

SYDNEY CIVIC SCANDAL “NO CASE,” SAYS COUNSEL (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) SYDNEY, Thursday. The hearing was continued to-day of the case in which Silas Young Mating is charged with corruptly receiving £10,600 in connection with the power-house contract between Babcock and Wilcox, of London, and tile late Sydney City Council. The case for the prosecution was concluded. Dr. 11. V. Evatt, counsel for Mating, then submitted that there was no case to answer on legal grounds, as it was clear that the whole of the transaction was a portion of trade and commerce with another country. If Arnot’s evidence were accepted it must be clear that Arnot and Maling would be guilty of an offence, not under the New South Wales Act, but under the Federal Secret Commissions Act, under which offences were punishable only after conviction by a jury. The construction of the State Act was such that an offence under it must of necessity bq confined to a transaction within the State. After argument the magistrate held that he had jurisdiction, and there was a case to answer. Gwynn Boyd, of the city electricity department, was the first witness for the defence. He said he had examined the tenders for the Bunnerong power-station contract, and he had no doubt that the tender of Babcock and Wilcox was the best. Maling at no time endeavoured to influence his conclusion. The case was again adjourned.