SYDNEY WHEAT SCANDAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17690, 30 July 1919, Page 5

SYDNEY WHEAT SCANDAL

EXCESSIVE COMMISSION PAID. I THREE FIRMS INDICATED. Pro 3» Association—By Telegraph—Copyright? SYDNEY, July 29. At the Wheat Commission evidence was submitted indicating that three firms received sums aggregating £237,000 as commission on the sale of wheat.' It was pointed out that this amount was gross, and large deductions were necessary. ; ' STATE BAKERY MANAGER'S EVIDENCE. GEORGESON'S GREAT PROFIT. SIDNEY, July 29. (Received July 50, at 0.25 a.m.) At to-day's sitting of the Wheat Commission, the former manager of the Stato bakery gave evidence that other millers were charged 5s for wheat for export, as against Georgeson's 4s thus enabling him to sell flour to the East at a great profit, approximating from #6(0,CC0 to £65,000 in the course of the yijfir: MR BEEBY'S COMPLAINTS. ROOM FOR FULL INQUIRY. (Fbom Oub Own Coueespondent.) SYDNEY, July 14. , Tho resignation of Mr George S. Beeby from the Nationalist Cabinet of New South Wales serves again to direct public attention to this ill-assorted Government, the end of -which at the next general election is considered as certain as the sunrise. Mr Beeby has resigned as a protest against wheat transactions and other things. There has certainly been a great amount of ugly talk about this wlieat deal. * It appears that Mr Grahame, tho Minister of Agriculture, who is also a prominent member of the/ organisation which handles the wheat pools, sold no fewer than 3,000,000 bushels •of inferior wheat to an unknown person named Georgeson, and that Mr Georgeson thereupon walked round the corner and sold the wheat to tile Japanese at an enormous profit. Mr Beeby says that Mr Grahame acted on his own authority, without consulting anyone or inviting competition from other buyers. Mr Beeby also objects to a proposal to pay £13,000 to a Mr John Brown, a notoriously wealthy coal-owner of Newcastle, as compensation for something or other that is not very clear, and of which' tho mere public has not heard before; and ho condemns a proposed payment of 1{- per cent, to _ a certain firm for engineering supervision in connection with the building of whoat elevators—an arrangement altogether outside the spirit of the contract. Mr Beeby himself is not above criticism. He recently went on a jaunt to America to inquire into industrialism." Ho turned up after a while in London, where he seemed to* do himself pretty well. Since he came back ho has published his impressions as contributed articles to the Sun, but it is nit known that he reported to the Cabinet. His political life is ono Ion" record of disputes and resignations—but he has served the useful purpose often of letting light into some dark and ugly places. (Received July 29, at 9.5 p.m.) The Government has decided to arfange a further inquiry into the question of association with the Georgeson wheat con'bract outside the scope of the present commission.'