CIVIL SERVANTS' "TATT'S." FUND.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2765, 8 May 1916, Page 6

CIVIL SERVANTS' "TATT'S." FUND.

AN OFFICE SENSATION. . There was' much talk throughout the Public Service-in; Wellington oil Saturday respecting an alleged action of one of the. assistant Public- Service Commissioners. It appears, from the version of tho affair given to a member of our staff, that some of the members of the staff of one Department bad been in - the habit of putting aside so' much per month from their salaries with which to purchase tickets in' Tat. iersall's sweeps, a.fairly common prac-. tice, if, fitrictly speaking*, :an illegal one, -with many staffs, private and public, in New Zealand. This money -was collected regularly by a certain member of the staff, and was deposited in an old cashbox on tho, top of the office safe. On Friday morning, so tho 6tory goes, one of the assistant Public 'Service Commissioners paid.a visit to,the -Department, took a pair of stops, mounted to the top of the safe, and took possession of the ! :casb-box and the book in which-is kept a record of tho payments made towards tho. fund. ■ Having done this it is stated that he asked the chief officer present to take possession of the box and hook pending inquiry. This the officer who had been approached declined to do, so the Commissioner himself is said to. have retained pos-' session of tho said articles. (After' the Commissioner had withdrawn, the chief official called his staff together, and questioned them as to the affair, and asked one officer directly Whether he had informed the Commit sioner of the Tattersall's sween matter. This officer admitted that lie had informed the Commissioner of what was,, going on in the Department. The chief's opinion, of the matter is stated to have been scarcely complimentary to the person who had given the Commissioner the information, and as the kt» tor left the office at closing time something in Ih'a nature of a. demonstration Was made against him.