CROWN CASE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 138, 11 May 1940, Page 5

CROWN CASE.

CONSPIRACY CHARGES. NEARING THE END. - Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, May 10. .Considerable progress lias been made in tho bearing of the evidence for the Crown on tlie trial of Harvey Maitland Olirystall and Gordon Percy Aston before Mr Justice Smith and a jury of 12 in the Supreme Court, Wellington. Today is the fourth day of the hearing. Accused are jointly charged with conspiracy by deceit to defraud the former secretary of the New Zealand Racing Conference, Hartley Roy Sellers, deceased, of £6765. Six . other associated charges include two of false pretences, one of theft, one of receiving and two of attempted false pretences. Tlie thirty-second Crown witness was in tlie box when the hearing was adjourned till to-morrow when the Crown case is likely to be completed. I. B. Cromb, continuing liis evidence, stated that Aston said he had a receipt for from £3OOO to £4OOO which lie had paid to Sellers. Aston told witness the police were barking up the wrong tree if they thought ho had anything to do with the disappearance of Sellers. Aston said •he had gone into Sellers’s office and destroyed quite a lot of correspondence from Chrystall for, lie said, if it had been discovered it would have hanged him. TORPEDO DEVICE. Captain Everard John McLennan, assistant-marine superintendent of the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand, Ltd., said at no time were plates or any other device for deflecting torpedoes fitted to the Awatea. Paymaster-Captain Norman Thomas Cooper, Naval Secretary and member of the New Zealand Naval Board, Wellington, said lie had no knowledge of such a torpedo-deflecting invention as had been mentioned. Witness had inquired from the Navy Office, Melbourne, and tlie Admiralty, London, and the replies liad been handed to the police. Ernest Marsden, D.Sc., secretary to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Wellington,and former Professor of Physics, said lie met Aston about ten years ago, when he was sent to Christchurch to investigate a claim that Aston could transmute ordinary metal into gold. In his opinion the claims were false. He considered it absolutely impracticable to communicate with London solely by an earth circuit. Referring to tho reported torpedoing device, Dr. Marsden said he could only presume that magnetic forces were involved. From the description, such magnetic forces would have an attractive rather than a repulsive force on torpedoes. The power likely to be available would be such that its effect on an oncoming torpedo of normal weight and speed would be negligible. Detective-Sergeant Murray, of Wellington, outlined the inquiries undertaken on the discovery of Sellers’s body on'August 2, 1939. On December 15, at Nelson, Detective-Sergeant Hayhurst- and witness saw Chrystall, who made a statement-. Chrystall was most insistent that he was concerned with Aston throughout, was closely associated with' him, and accepted full. responsibility. He was no loss a principal than Aston. In the statement Chrystall said the experiments were actually carried out at Tahunanui, as stated; Referring to tho cheque handed to Chrystall by Sellers for £l5O and drawn on the Racing Conference No. 2 account, Chrystall stated that Sellers assured him it ivas all right.. Accordingly when Sellers wrote out tho other cheque on the same account lor £750 both lie (Chrystall) and Aston were completely disarmed. Chrystall further stated that he frankly told the Conference Committee that lie accepted full responsibility for what had occurred, but did that as much,to help Sellers as anything else. He had. a basis for promising that- the money would be paid within a week. Front liis ownj personal knowledge and experience as an engineer tlie whole business was bon.a fide and all matters ho had represented to Sellers. Batt, and others in .obtaining finance for the business liad been genuine,