Mv Pollurian

Writs and Court Proceedings In Rabaul

Rabaul, Jan. 20.

fITHERE have been further develop- X ments in the troubles between the promoters of the Bougain ville Company (formed to run the MV Pollurian between Bougainville and Rabaul, and engage generally in trade and shipping) and Captain Thomas Willis Coyne, who was in strumental in bringing the Pollurian from England to New Guinea in 1951, and who subsequently acted in Rabaul as managing director of the Co.

Coyne, on January 13, was com mitted for trial on a charge of at tempting to steal £1,415 from the Company; and, about the same time, writs, each claiming £lO,OOO for malicious prosecution, were served by Coyne upon James Murray Joyes, of Iwi Plantation, and John Henry Ellis, of Tokaian Plantation.

The two latter are Bougainville planters and were associated with Coyne and others in 1950 in the planning of the enterprise.

The evidence showed that on February 27, 1951, £5,000 Stg. (£2,500 from Ellis and £2,500 from Joyes) was cabled to Coyne, in England, for the purchase of goods to be brought out in the Pollurian. The latter arrived at the end of 1951.

The Co. was registered in February, 1952.

Coyne, after his return to Rabaul, informed Joyes and Ellis that £1,300 of the £5,000 was not spent. This was a private matter between Coyne, Joyes and Ellis and was not part of the Co’s transactions.

In April, 1952, Joyes and Ellis interviewed Coyne, and asked for m accounting, and repeated the re juest in May and August. On Sep ember 19, Joyes and Ellis demanded i settlement that day; Coyne landed them a statement showing i balance left out of their £5,000 of :i,415; and he then and there signed i Bougainville Co. cheque for that imount and handed it to Joyes, and he latter, acting upon advice, de )osited the cheque in a Trust iccount.

The directors, Mr. Dudley Jones, ilr. Joyes and Mr. Ellis, called a neeting on September 22 and de aanded of Coyne his reasons for >aying a private debt with a Com pany cheque for £1,415. Coyne said hat more than that was owing to lim on salary and other accounts. ?he Directors had an audit mads, md challenged this claim; there /ere protracted arguments about ccounts (in the course of which it ippearod that Coyne, on behalf f the Company, had supervised ex penditure totalling £30,000, secured n bank overdraft); and finally the )irectors took the matter to the olice, Coyne was removed from

control, and Mr. Dudley Jones took charge.

Mr. James, counsel for Coyne, presented as a defence that Coyne had no thought or intention of tak ing funds improperly—he honestly believed that the Co. owed him this sum, and more.

Magistrate J. R. Rigby decided that there was a prima facie case, and committed Coyne to the Supreme Court for trial. Bail of £250 was allowed.