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Counsel Claims "Doors Open For !
Abuse ui Casket
Mr. Bennett K.C. Ópens
Address to
Royal Commission
BRISBANE, Feb. 9.-If it did no more
than dispel the doubts now in the public
mind, the commission would have justified*
its existence, stated Mr. A. L. Bennett,
K.Ç., opening his address this afternoon to
the Royal Commission investigating the
Queensland Golden Casket. Mr. Bennett,
who is appearing for Mr. Bruce Pie,
M.L.A., wUl continue his address to-mor-
row.
Criticising the commission's terms of
reference« Mr. Bennett said the questions
Mr. Pie desired to raise were not dealt
with, and others he did. not request were
put to the commission. Some of the ques-
tions already had been answered in the
State Parliament.
Mr. Bennett said the result of the com-
mission could be summed up in tins way :
That it had been established without doubt
that looseness of Golden Casket adminis-
tration did exist in an extreme form, and
that the looseness was of such a nature that
"the doors are definitely open for abuse."
LETTERS FROM NEW ZEALAND
When - the Casket commission'
resumed this morning John Ed
wardggtifford, assistant aceount
T^JÄSTthe Golden Casket office,
f'was recalled to answer questions
on letters received from New Zea-
land. The letters included com-
plaints of tickets applied for and
not received, and of delay in the
posting of Casket tickets.
Clifford produced office docu-
ments and gave explanations for
the complaints. Clifford, further
examined by Mr. W. G. Mack (as-
tis ting the commission), produced
correspondence between Ethel
Payne,"Of Penshurst, New South
yTales, and the Golden Casket
.manager (Mr. Burke).
In a" letter dated February 1,
1950, Ethel Payne complained that
she had sent to the Casket office
for tickets about May. The Cas-
ket was drawn at 12.45 p.m., and
the tickets were posted the same
day at 9.15 p.m. She added that
she thought the tickets had been
held deliberately until the results
were out, and that it was the
manager's duty to see that all tic-
kets were posted before the lot-
tery was drawn.
WON £5000 FBIZE.
Replies by Mr. Burke stated that
the staff had not deliberately held
tickets back and that the tickets
would have been posted before
9.30 am, He also jîtated that a
£5000 prize won by Payne had not
been claimed and enclosed a- form
for the making of a statutory dec-
laration as Payne had lost the
ticket
Clifford -said that Payne made
the declaration and got the prize,
out of which she bought, nine tic-
kets in a subsequent Casket. One
of these tickets also won £5.
Clifford said that when dis-
gruntled or fastidious subscribers
wrote- into the Golden Casket
office, Mr. Burke bandied the let-
ters. "Mr. Burke asks the sub-
scribers to mark, their letters
'Personal* so that he will receive
them," Clifford said.
"Mr. Burke has quite a ian
mail," he added..
MANY liÈTTEKS NOT
MENTIONED.
' Mr. Bennett said the Casket of-
fice had received thousands of
letters which the commission had
heard nothing about. "
Clifford said he could not say
how many letters from fastidious
or disgruntled subscribers had
been received. Clifford told Mr.
Bennett that he had gone through
the Golden Casket register and
found what he thought were
tickets issued to Gray personally
and purchased by him.
He produced 662 tickets in
ordinary Caskets and 20 tickets
in mammoth Caskets which, he
said, were.about 75 per cent, of
the tickets sold to Gray between
April, 1949, and October, 1949.
This would represent his great-
est rate of purchase and would be
as high as he had ever bought. .
He said that a postal box in* the
name of W. G.- Simpson was one
of those used by Golden Invest-
ments for -correspondence from
New Zealand. To Mr. Mack, Clif-
ford said he had heard Gray give
evidence and he could not dispute
or verify the number Gray, said
he had bought.
To Mr. Crosser, Clifford said he
had been at about 500 drawings
since 1944. He could remember
only one ' other ' occasion when
tickets wire in transit during the
drawing. On that occasion there
waa an accident and the service
car was-held up with-unsold re-
turns from Warwick. An agent
at Warwick agreed to buy all the
tickets.'
He said that when outts were
held in the country, arrangements
were made' with the C.P.S. to
supervise them hours before the
drawing. To Mr. Mack, he said
that a C.F.S. was only" used in
cases of emergency ' when butts
were held up in transit. Usually
the GRS. attended to the butts
at the office of a different agent
from the agent who sold the
tickets
.'. MB. BENNETT'S ADDRESS
Mr. Bennett then opened his
address, .which was unfinished when
the Commission adjourned unta to-
morrow;
"There can be no doubt whatever
of Mr. Pie's absolute sincerity in
this matter," said Mr. Bennett. "If
any test were required one hag the
hard cold test -of costs, and. yet
that sincerity has been the subject
of an attack: which borders on the
scurrilous. '
"The basis of that attack is that
.he is responsible for this Commis-
sion, that it is not justified and
that Mr. Pie must be politically
persecuted for the action he has
taken."
Mr. Bennett said he .wished to
remind the commission of a ques-
tion which was not relevant to .sub-
missions made by Mr.' Fie to the
Premier when asking for a commis-
sion'and had no relevance at all to
the request for a commission made
by the leaders of the political par-
ties in the State.' The commission
was empowered he said, to Inquire
into Golden Casket No. 10, Special
New Year Gift (1936) series, in
which the first prize of £25,000
was shared by the Premier's brother
(Mr. P. J. Hanlon).
Mr. Pie had never asked for that
question to be put in. In Parlia-
ment he had asked a question re-
lating to the subject matter of that
question which was entirely clear-
ed up by the answer and no reason
could be seen for putting In the
question. - .
There would have been just as
much reason far putting in a ques-
tion on Lee. A question had been
asked about a win af Mr. Robert
Lee, care of. Golden Investments.
The answer came back in relation
to E. P. Lee. There was just as
much reason to have a question in
relation to E. P. Lee as to Mr. P.
J. Hanlon."
"SCURRILOUS ATTACK"
Mr. Bennett said that Mr. Pie.
had asked a question in Parliament
on Mr. P. J. Hanlon after a call
from an anonymous informant-not
one af the two he found to be re-
liable. By bringing it out into the
open. Mr. Pie had got a straight
denial and had had the matter
clarified. He should not be the
subject of a scurrilous attack on
account of what he had done.
Mr. Bennett said it was necessary
to consider how Mr. Pie set the
ball rolling. The attack had been
made on him because be set the
bjjSl rolling. Mr. Pie had received
.word from Rev. I. Alcorn,
fe Rev. Alcorn had made a responsible
'statement which, on the whole, had
proved to be correct.
Before the matter came np as a
public question in Parliament Mr.
Roberts had got a letter which bore
the ring of truth. It too, had been
shown to be correct.
"That may be a subject of criti-
cism-that both informants said the
sale took place after the drawing of
the Casket," Mr. Bennett said.
"That is technically correct. An
observer at the Casket would have
assumed that." . I
The sale of a ticket in the Golden
Casket was act akin to the sale of,
goods,' but even if-lt were, there
had been no complete sale on the
facts as stated by Mr. Burke. Even
on that footing the transaction had
not been complete. It was. not a
sale of goods because one was not
interested in selling a piece of
paper. The paper'.was itself a con-
tract. By the paper and the issue
of a ticket a contract was estab-
lished. The ticket constituted the
agreement and one of the terms
was that it was no't transferable.
There was no real contract until
a ticket was issued.
That was the whole basis of the
contract. "Otherwise there could be
all sorts of Informal contracts for
the issue of a ticket later. There
could, no doubt, be an agreement
to bring about a sale, but one of the
essential features to bring it about
was delivery, and it could not be
submitted that Mr. Gray had any
writing to take along to the station
and demand the tickets.
NO DELIVERY OF TICKETS.
There could have been no de-
livery or appropriation of tickets
until the numbers ware known for
certain sad Gray oouM not btv*.
gone along, and assumed owner-
ship. . ' "
"What does the man in the.
street regard as the buying ot a
Casket ticket?" asked Mr. Ben-
nett. "He regards it as the ,act
of issuing to him a ticket suitably
endorsed. It entitles him to a
chance.'*
. "That is the way it would ap-
pear to an'observer at the Cas-
ket office. Accounts to Mr. Al-
corn and Mr. Roberts bore a ring
or sincerity. Mr. Bennett con-
tinued. It was said . that they
were anonymous and would have
to be discredited, but -surely the
circumstances had to be consid-
ered. Many subordinates often
ha4* a fear of victimisation
either real or imaginary. Victim-
isation could take "forms other
than the sacking of a man. The
letter showed evidence of having
come from inside the Casket of-
fice, and it was only reasonable
that a person would want to have
the protection of anonymity in
the circumstances.
ATTEMPTS TO DISCREDIT
"Attempts to discredit Mr.
Pie - because of the mere fact'
that he ' urged- a commission are
without any substance whatever.
Mr" Pie had been subjected for
days to cross-examination which
had nothing but political signi-
ficance," Mr. Bennett said. This
was nothing short of an attempt
to discredit Mr. Fie politically.
Mr. Bennett said the attacks
had come from counsel for Ii. £.
Gray and counsel for the Casket
manager (Mr. Burke).
On the attack from the Golden
Casket, Mr. Bennett submitted
that it was an appalling position;
the ' material used in that cross
examination could never have
come from Burke, or from mem-
bers of the Golden Casket office.
POLITICAL FEBSECTJTION
The commission would call to
mind the nature of that political
persecution which had raised its
head and remember the details
brought out about- various con-
tracts with the Government and
about applications for building
licences which were made by Mr.
Pie's company over a period of
years to responsible public ser-
vants.
Mr. Bennett said that appar-
ently all that material bad been
made available to Mr. Casey
(for the Golden Casket) for the
purpose of discrediting Mr. Pie.
"That must call for a public
outcry-that a man's personal
dealings with public departments
should be made the subject of a
violent political attack. The re-
sult of this commission can be
summed up in this way: That it
has been established without any
-doubt that looseness of adminis-
tration of the Golden Casket does
exist in an extreme form and
looseness of such a nature that
the doors are definitely open for
abuse. The evidence in this
case has been given against a
background, of what I submit, is
simmering public discontent
about th« Golden Casket.
. "The commission can Judge
about that by the number of
letters received before the com-
mission. Many may contain little
substance, but not all, and a sub-
stantial number bring mattera of
concern-for example, that tick-
ets axe alleged to nave been
postad after the drawing :? not
once, but on several occasion».
WLDEB TEBMS NEEDED
There has been a lot of ex
párte evidence about that. Mr.
Burke has said: This cannot hap-
pen' or they must be mistaken.'
Nevertheless, if the terms had
been wider the commission would
have heard those persons and
seen whether those things they
assert did, in fact, take place."
Obviously, the instances heard
of before thia commission could
only be a small proportion of in-
stances such as that, said Mr.
Bennett
"Mr. Pie would have bean fail-
ing in bis duty as a public man
if he had not brought these
facts to the light of day, to a lot
of public notice and to a public
inquiry," said Mr. Bennett The
very people who now attack him
for doing so, should be the first
to be grateful-If they have
nothing to hide or fear-for hav-
ing the opportunity to bring out
everything into the light, and to
dispell - these doubts or suspic
liona," .,
$