MUTUAL CHARGES

Hokitika Guardian, 10 November 1932, Page 4

MUTUAL CHARGES

TIN HARE RACING CORRUPTION

MR STEVENS AND MR LANG.

( Australian P.ess Association.)

SYDNEY, November 9.

The' Premier, Mr Stevens, to-day gave Mr Hang every facility for moving a motion of censure on the Government.

-ur bang’s motion condemned the Government for being associated with the payment of £iOUO to Redmond Garry,, who undertook to procure secret, testimony in regard to tl:e tin. hare .dealings, vvueivby former Ministers cf tbe Crown were defamed, and party advantages obta.ned. The motion claimed that such payments amounted to bribery. He declared that the Premier, Mr Stevens, and others liud entered into a conspiracy to procure by bribery false evidence whereon to denounce former Ministers cf the Crown. Air Lung reviewed at great length the negotiations with Barry, and diligent efforts bn the part of Mr Stevens to induce Barry to bring him (Mr Lang) prominently into the tin hare scandals.

The Premier, in reply, declared that Mr Lang, had made a grotesque attempt to cloak proven corruption and fraud on the part of certain members of the Lang Administration in connection with tin hare racing and the introduction of fruit machines. Could anybody doubt, asked Mr Stevens that Mr Lang, Mr Gosling and Mr Ely were involved to the fullest extent in corruption ? Mr ' Stevens created a sensation when he stated that on the eve of the 1927 State election, when the fate of tin hare racing was in the ballanee, Air Lang had received twentyfour thousand pounds into his trust account, £12,000 of which was spent c-n the election, £4,000 was transferred to J. T. Lang’s fixed deposit account, £250 to his private account and £2OOO was paid to Mr Gosling, who later became the chief secretary. The censure rnoion was defeated by 48 to 19.