The Globe. FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 886, 27 April 1877, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 1877.

Two cases of embezzlement of funds of public bodies have been brought prominently under notice during the last few days. In one case an officer in whom the directors, the shareholders, the auditors, and indeed the general public, ha d implicit confidence, succeeded in robbing his employers of a very large sum of money, and such was the trust placed in him that he succeeded in making his escape from the colony before the slightest suspicion was raised. In the other, the miserably paid clerk of a Hoad Board, AVhdman, embezzled five or six hundred pounds, and be has been justly punished for bis crime. Onr object in referring to these eases is to draw attention to the remarks of the Provincial Auditor, in his letter to the Heathcote Eoad Board, with reference to Wadman’s defalcations. He says : —“ I have not a word to use in “ defence of Wadman, but I must “ remind the Board that I have fre- “ quently had to protest against the “ tendency to false economy in the “ employment of men in positions of “ trust and responsibility upon a salary “ which is scarcely above that of a day “ labourer. It is for the Board and the “ ratepayers to consider the danger “ attendant upon the practice of a “ system of parsimonious economy.” These sentences, it seems to ns, are worthy of being printed in letters of gold, and hang up in every bank parlor and merchant’s private office in the city. How many clerks are there strivingnow to keep up an appearance, on salaries that are scarcely sufficient to provide them with board and lodging ? Temptation is presented to them on all hands, and it is matter for marvel that so few fall. The usages of society—that fearful fetich, Mrs. Grundy, to which we all do homage —compel them to expend the greater portion of their miserable stipend in a struggle to keep up appearances. But, as a matter of course, the inevitable result follows. The unfortunate young man soon becomes bound hand and foot to ihe demon debt. His life is a burden to him—one long system of deceit. What wonder, then, that now and again the tempter should become too strong for Ins moral resolution, and be falls. But what can be said of these wealthy corporations, these prosperous merchants, who dole out such miserable pittances to those in their employ? As Mr. Ollivier tersely puts it, they give

salaries scarcely equal to those of a day labourer,” yet they expect their employees to keep up the outward appearance of gentility. They hold up their hands in horror when one of these unfortunate young men —driven to desperation, and with every facility to commit the crime placed within his reach —helps himself to some of his employer's gold. They do not reflect for one moment that they are to some extent responsible for the crime. Tor a miserable salary, they extort from him long hours of toil, and they take no interest in the manner in which lie spends the few hours of leisure occasionally granted to him. They treat their employees as mere machines out of which the largest amount of work, for the smallest amount of pay possible, is to be extracted; and yet profess to be astonished when an officer gives way to the strong temptation placed before him. Let all employers of educated labour lay the words of the Provincial Auditor to heart and endeavour to profit by them, and we shall have fewer cases of embezzlement by persons in positions of trust.

Althouh deprived of the opportunity of presenting the address on the arrival of the Governor at Dunedin, the irrepressible John M’Laren has at last got the ear of his Excellency, and on behalf of the unemployed of Otago has made their wants known. The address is a curiosity in its way, and a perusal of it leads to the impression that its author has been far more anxious to make telling points than tell a plain unvarnished tale. Its main passages are as follow

“ During the past summer we have been compelled to beseech the Corporation of the city and the late Provincial Government to give us work. Instead of bread his Worship tiic Mayor gave us stones to break, and several of us were employed on (he roads. Since that time a season of unparalleled dullness lias set in, and owing to (lie tightness of the money market consequent upon the withdrawal from the Colony of our loan agent, the much lamented Sir Julius Vogel, many of the public works which formerly kept us employed have been suspended. We are now out of work ; our means are exhausted, and so is our patience. We are patriotic, but not to the point of starvation; we cannot (loat debentures or raise loans like your Excellency’s GlovernmenL To remain in the Colony without work is to starve, and as some of us have families and souls, we cannot do so without injuring the rest of the community. As your .Excellency is doubtless aware, the Hospital, Benevolent Asylum, and Industrial School are over’ crowded, and the authorities are compelled (o turn a deaf ear to the cry of suffering and misery. Homeless children have been turned out in the si reels for want of an asylum ; the Fever Hospital has been closed against our families, and wo and our little ones have been treated worse than the beasts of the field. Unlike the birds of the air, we cannot ily away to the other colonies where work can be found, and owing to the distance of Wellington, we are unable to present our wants and wrongs before the seat of Government. We therefore humbly beseech your Excellency to take our hard case into consideration, and, if necessary, advise the Government to employ their Agent-General to contract another loan for the purpose of chartering steamers to convey us away from a colony in which we and our families have only the prospect of future starvation.” .Nothing could be more satisfactory than the answer of his Excellency. He expresses Ins surprise sit the statement contained in the address, and regrets to learn that any of those who have come to the colony with the view of improving their condition should have Just ground of complaint, and concludes by stating that his Government are prepared to offer work on the railways, to all who are willing to accept it, “ at rates which, although slightly below the current wages of the colony, are still far in excess of those which could be obtained in England.”