AN UGLY ALLEGATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 117, 8 May 1908, Page 2

AN UGLY ALLEGATION.

STORMY SCENE IN FEDERAL PARLIAMENT DURING DEBATE ON KEROSENE DUTIES. MINISTER ALLEGES STANDARD OIL INTERFERENCE. Received Bth, 12.58 a.m. ] Melbourne, May 7. ( There was a stormy scene in the , House during discussion on the kero- , sene duties. i Sir W. Lyne interjected: I am tola there is no use going on, because the Standard Oil Co. have numbers in their bag. Mr. G. 11. Reid, rising to a point of order, characterised the slanderous statement as a scandous thing to say. It was giving currency to infamous slanders uttered outside, that a member could be bought in connection with the tariff. It was inowt abominable that (be greatest slander ever ca&t on members should come from a Minister of the Crown. Sir W. Lyne interjected: "I say deliberately that a message has been brought to me," adding, amidst a storm of dissent, "the company has been to every member and tried to get a promise. The company has got a list of members \yho promised them support. So much has been said about this outside that I turned the representative of the company out oi my oflice. It is a scandal that men should be sent from America to force the matter through." Continuing, he said lie cast no imputation on members, but that they had had quite enough of this from America. Asked how members were influenced, Sir W. Lyne said: "By persuasion." He did not know that a member was bribed. A noisy scene continued for a consid--1 erable time, members hotly attackiiv Sir W. Lyne, and denying being approached by the Standard Oil Company. Eventually Sir W. Lyne withdrew the charge unreservedly. Pressed to give the name of his informant, he stated the information came from one of his colleagues.