THE VOUCHER HUBBUB.

Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1551, 6 September 1905, Page 3

THE VOUCHER HUBBUB.

MR FISHER HAS A NEW DODGE APOLOGISES BUT ASKS FOR ANOTHER ENQUIRY. CLEVER BUT TOO THIN. JPec Presa iAßxoclatiojSJ. Wellington, laal night. Late this afternoon Mr Fiaher, M.H.R., forwarded the following letter to the “'sir!—ln reference to the report of the Auditor and CoDtroller-General upon a charge made by me of a payment to Captain B. J. S. Seddon at Christchurch last year, I wiah now to inform yon that I have very oarefully weighed the evidence attached thereto, and aa a reault I am desicoua of carrying out my expressed intern | tionby taking that ooorae which would aeem reaaonable and honorable under the perplexing oircumatancea P “Ist, I desire therefore to express to you and to your son my deep and sincere regret at the unfortunate position in whioh you have been placed, and I wish to aaaura you that I freely and frankly aooept the decision of the Auditor-General as far as the charge of a payment to Captain Seddon ia concerned. •• 2nd. I wish to assure you that at no staee in the proceedings was I actuated by anf personal motive, either agamat yourself or Captain Seddon. I bad in my possession evidence auoh aa no publio man would disregard, and I believeatben.ana continue to believe, that l ooted in accordance with the trust repoeed in me by my °°si B f)rd/ The evidence taken by the Auditor-General still, however. leavea | ground for a publio inquiry. Whilst it completely exonerates Captain Seddon it leaves us confronted with the fact that tbodooument handled by Mossra Will.e, Larcombe, West, and Lundon was m existence, and accepting the denial of Captain SeddoD, must have been ■ B P J. 8- Seddon ’ by some person who in the interests of common justice should be dl8 “ 4tb! B l’ submit further that we have a right to prosecute a most searchiDg invo - ti»a(iion in order to diseoyer the origin oi fh 8 e doouments handled by my witnesses ana if it still exists to ascertain its present whereabouts : that, acoeptlng 'be cetl* cates of the departmental beads as being aoonrato, does not the evidence of my witnesses prove conclusively that a fl ° J certified voucher has been in existence, has been handled by four competent men, was signed by one <R. J. S. Seddon, and I apparently paid, and all without the knowledge of those in authority ’ I 11 6th. Does all this not point most oonolnsively to the faot that an illegal doonment has been in existence, and ‘hat on that dooument there was a signature wnlan in the face of the evidence must have been ftl "7 B thsl have unbounded faith in the testimony of Messrs Willis, Laroombe, West, and Lundon, and it is now due to them, as you recently hold it was due to Messrs Heywood, Collins, and Gray, that this matter should bo effectually cleared up, and this I submit oan only be done bj an exhaustive publio inquiry. *« x sincerely trust that this letter wil I remove . the matter entirely from tha sphere of personality with whioh it hu unfortunately beoome associated, and I g farther and BUggest that it has now beoom your duty as Prime Minister to Bift th (matter to the bottom. “ I may add that I am handing tb letter to the newspaper press for publio tioo,”