FORGED DEBENTURES.

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 11, 16 August 1845, Page 2

FORGED DEBENTURES.

Within the last few days there has been discovered another instance of forgery of the Government Debentures, and of much greater value than the former circulation. It will be remembered that the Government announced that a book, containing two hundred and fifty ten shilling debentures, had been abstracted from one of the Government offices : the present forgery, that we have seen, is one for Five Pounds, This secondary fact of forgery and circulation most clearly proves the extreme looseness, negligence and incapacity of all the officials concerned in the manufacture of these monetary documents. How many more, — or to what amount — there may be in circulation ofthese spurious debentures it seems there is no clue whatever, for the Government authorities appear to be quite as much in the dark as the' public. If there has been a book of two hundred and fifty of these five pound debentures clandestinely removed Irom some one of the offices, in their course of being signed by the several- parties, necessary for their completion, it is clear that there is a further sum of twelve hundred and fifty pounds thus fraudulently in circulation, — and, indeed, the number and the amount ofthese forged debentures, we seriously believe, cannot, at all, be calculated. This delinquency is attributed, by some, wholly to one and. the same person who forged and issued those of a smaller sum ; but we are of the same opinion as in the former instance, that there are more than one person implicated in this forgery and fraud : — whatever may be the real truth, it is perfectly evident that those who have had the superintendence of the manufacture and issue of these debentures, are most highly culpable and reprehensible. \ The Government must do something, promptly, on this most important subject, or else the whole of this paper issue will be, not only considerably depreciated, but its currency will be difficult. If it is intended that debentures, under the value of £50, are still to continue to form part of the circulating medium of the Colony, the Government should immediately recall all the outstanding small notes, and institute a proper office for their manufacture and issue, under responsible persons of talent and honesty, in whom confidence could be

placed. The new issue should be printed with blue ink ; and during the process of printing them, there should be some one, deputed by the Colonial Treasurer, present, and as soon as the number required was struck off, the "form" of types should be carried away and deposited in the custody of the Colonial Treasurer j — and to prevent also, with certainty, any attempt, or possibility of forged issues, by abstraction of the printed forms from any one of the offices, there should be adopted the precaution— that after the signatures of the Governor, the Colonial Secretary, and of the Colonial Treasurer tare affixed, these Government Debentures j should be stamped with the seal of the Colony. Ihis seal of the Colony — most important as it is, is a stamp made with much labor and expense, in England, and consequently, impossible of correct imitation here — should be in the individual charge and keeping, either of the Governor, the Colonial Secretary, or the Colonial Treasurer, and never used but in their actual presence, in stamping debentures, or any other document. If the paper used for debentures was of proper consistency, this application of the seal of the Colony, in the presence only of the officer made responsible for its use, would render them incapable of forgery, and thus impart confidence as to their validity. Tne present system is as disgraceful to the Government as it is injurious to the public.

We understand the detachment of the J)6th Regt., now stationed here, under Lieut-Colonel Hulme, will shortly leave to join head-quarters in Van Diemen's Land, — as well as the 99th, under Colonel Despard, for New South Wales, as soon as the remainder of the 58th Regt. arrives from Sydney. H. M. S. Daphne, Captain Onslow, arrived on Monday last from Callao, South America, via Tahiti, having also touched at the Navigator Islands, leaving Mr. Pritchard there as English Consul. The whaler Matilda, which left the port of Auckland at the end of March, last, had touched at Valparaiso, on her way to England.