A PRACTICAL JOKE.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 May 1921, Page 3

A PRACTICAL JOKE.

AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER THE VICTIM.

Sydney, April 26. Details of the trick played recently upon the Australian Prime Minister, Mr. Hughes, show that the act was a most despicable one, and was obviously the work of spmeone of very cunning and unscrupulous character. Mr. Hughes, some months ago, received a gift of £25,000 in cash, subscribed by admirers in Australia and Britain, of his services to the Empire during the war. Mr. Hughes, who had been a poor man, accepted the money —and thereupon every Labor body and newspaper in the country began to shriek at him. The question whether the money should have been taken was open to debate; and Mr. Hughes’ position was not made easier by the consistent refusal of the promoters of the testimonial to publish the names of the subscribers. An attempt was recently made in Parliament to have Mr. Hughes’ seat declared vacant on the ground that certain laws forbade the acceptance of a gift, but this move failed.

Then, a few days ago, the Mayor of Bendigo—Mr. Hughes’ constituency—received a letter apparently from Mr. Hughes. “1 have decided,” says the letter, “on the eve of my departure for England, to signify my appreciation of the loyal support always given to me by the constituency of Bendigo, to donate for its need a part of the £25,000 recently presented to me, in the following manner:— £5OOO to the miners’ sick fund, £5OOO to the Bendigo School of Mines, and £5OOO to farming interests, through the Bendigo Agricultural Society.” The letter then goes on to ask for a conference of the three bodies named, to formulate a scheme by which the amounts specified could be most usefully allotted.

The Mayor accepted the letter as gen nine, and proceeded to arrange the conference for last Tuesday afternoon. Some time on Tuesday, however, news of the “gift” reached Mr. Hughes, and be then publicly denounced the whole thing as a hoax, worked to do him political harm. “I have given instructions to the<police to ascertain who the writer was.” said Mr. Hughes. “If it were true that I were making these gifts, it would be one of the most shameless acts of attempting to bribe a constituency, in the whole history of Australia.” Mr. Hughes has left for England, with the mystery unsolved.