MUNICIPAL CORRUPTION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1526, 6 April 1887, Page 3

MUNICIPAL CORRUPTION.

All England ii to-day disousiing the Issue of the cat* of municipal bribery »t Salford, Lauonblre, wi'h tpacial interest heoaaie, although It is of' en charged that the whole governing system j from the War and Navy departments down to the ' vestry, is honeycombed with fraud, Ihia is the first time it has got into ooart. Hunter, who Is the Gas Engineer of the Corporation, was reoentJy charged by a coal merchant, named Lever, In a letter to the Mayor and Aldermen, with exacting oommießionu of from 25 to- 35 oenta * ton on all the great amount of coal he bought. Hunter brought a ohargo of orirolnal libel, the effeot of which w*b to prevent Lever frcm unifying m hit own beba'f, The font days' trinl developed the facts that practically all the ooal merchants m Lancashire had known for years .that Hunter was thus plundering tho tra^e, (ha* the Alder mon had seen him rpsuding £5000 on an income of £800, and inventing £2000 m a tingle enterprise without evor asking a question, and that the practice was a c /mmon one among like officials m other corporations. Tho Judge charged sharply against Banter, specially blaming n>im for closing Lever's month by a criminal instead of a civil notion. The Jury ttoquitted Lever amid loud cheers from a orowd* d court, n huh (he judge wna power* lefß to prevent, lrv^r tras followed out andchrorod m The streets of Mancluater by a greafc throng. When he tevched his home at Bowdon, he was made tho objeot of a popular demonstration by bands of trada-men, delpgatfon*, etc. , although tho resolt of the trial had only been known an hour or so. Numerous trials will follow, and perhaps, lead <o general inquiry. If th'iy d», the state of things revealed will rival the affair disclosed m New York.