Wardill's Defalcations.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 203, 30 September 1873, Page 7

Wardill's Defalcations.

The Melbourne correspondent of the Daily Times has the following upon the above sub* ject : But the real event of social importance has been the finding of the body of poor young VVardill in the Yarra, It seems that directly after handing in a confession of his embezzlement, Wardill rushed away to the river and committed suicide, rather than face the exposure and punishment that awaited him, It was discovered that his private papers included a diary containing a number of entries recording the circumstances that led to his embezzlements. These were a series of losses at gambling extending over four years, and amounting in the aggregate to the sum of his defalcations, £7OOO. It is a strange circumstance that Wardill kept a close and minute record of these transactions, setting out the losses, the names of the persons to whom they went, the pl.tce where the play occurred, the hour of breaking up, and other particulars. The names of the persons to whom the money Went are thus pretty well known, and have been in the mouth of every one. They can hardly feel comfortable just at the present time. Some of them are Wealthy men, men who ought to have been ashamed to play for large sums of money with a clerk having a salary of only £4OO a year. But they played, and won, and pocketed the money—money which they certainly must have known was not honestly come by. These men were not such fools as to believe that those large sums of which they were fleecing this unhappy young man, who was dragged a corpse out of the Yarra the other day, were portions of his scanty salary. It is difficult to acquit them of moral complicity in the embezzlement by means of which their winnings were paid. It is a bad business altogether. It has shown us that some of our very best hotels permit gambling for money to be carried on at all hours of the night and morning, year after year. It has shown us how widespread these practices are. There is also the suspicion that this persistent run of ill luck which cost Wardill his life was A>i the result of entirely fair play.