SAFE DEPOSIT BOX FIGURES IN TIMBER LEASES CASE

Wanganui Chronicle, 29 January 1948, Page 5

SAFE DEPOSIT BOX FIGURES IN TIMBER LEASES CASE

Recd. 9 p.m. Sydney, Jan. 28. Before the case in which John Smith Garden is charged with having forged and falsified official documents relating to the lease of timber lands in New Guinea, was resumed in a special Federal Court today, the Minister of External Affairs (Mr. E. I. Ward), who is a witness for the prosecution, picked up his safety deposit box from the Bank of New South Wales and handed it to the magistrate. Later, in court, Detective Inspector Wilks, who with a constable accompanied Mr. Ward to the bank, swore that only private documents were found in the box.

William Maurice Urquhart, managing director of the Sydney Pincombe Proprietary Ltd., was then crossexamined by Mr. Simon Isaacs, counsel for Garden. Witness said that he had received nothing from the company above his salary and director’s fees, which totalled £l9BO a year. The shares he acquired in the company were a gift from the Pincombe sisters, but had been given him instead of a bonus. In 1945 he was a National Service officer, but did clerical work for Mr. Ward at his home.