MUNGANA CLAIM

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1931, Page 7

MUNGANA CLAIM

ADDRESS LASTS TWO DAYS QUEENSLAND STATE’S SUIT ALLEGATIONS OF FRAUDS COUNSEL DETAILS DEALING “THE HAND OF THEODORE” By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright, Rec. 8.30 p.m. Brisbane, July 23. The suit known as the Mungana lease case, for the recovery of £30,000 from G. Theodore, Federal Treasurer, W. McCormack, a former Queensland Premier, and L. Goddard and F. Reid, which began at the Brisbane Supreme Court yesterday, was continued to-day. Mr. A. D. McGill in the course of his opening address, which occupied two days, declared that McCormack while a Minister of the Crown received a cheque for £l5OO from the State Smelters, signed by Goddard as manager and payable to “F. Reid or. bearer.” That cheque went into McCormack’s bank account on October 1, 1920. On October 16 he withdrew £750. The Crown suggested somebody else got it.

“The jurors will see that whenever money conies forward a hand steals out of the shadows to take its share,” said counsel. “That hand is the hand of Theodore.” Evidence would be called, added Mr. McGill, to show that Theodore shared every time money was paid. Other evidence would be produced showing that. Goddard was definitely corrupted in 1920 with a gift of 1250 shares in Mungana Mines Limited, other shares in the mines being in the names of McCormack’s two sisters.