EMBEZZLEMENT and DISGRACE.

Patea Mail, 24 February 1881, Page 3

EMBEZZLEMENT and DISGRACE.

Wilkinson, the defaulting- clerk at Hawera, will be brought up before justices to-day on remand, when the charge against him will be stated by the police. We understand that the defalcations are considerable. His accounts as receiver of land revenue are ascertained to be wrong to the extent of at least £4OO, and the investigation is not complete. These moneys had been received from occupants of deferred payment sections, and the receipts could not be closely checked because the holders of tins land have Been allowed a month or two as grace beyond the date for payment. Mr Wilkinson’s unbusinesslike discharge of his duties had caused him to be under suspicion and disgrace some weeks before any clear discovery was made. He had, in fact, been under notice to leave, and had formally sent in his resignation to the R.M. at Patea before any deficiency in cash had been detected. His service would have terminated at the end of the present week. The first evidence of embezzlement was the accidental discovery that a deferred payment settler had paid a sum at Hawera which was not accounted for by Wilkinson. Being asked to explain, he said he had posted the amount to Patea the previous day. Enquiry showed the money bad not reached Patea. That case was too clear, and he could not farther conceal the defalcation. His books had been examined and balanced about a month before this occurred, and the cash was found right. How far he had failed to record and account for moneys received for deferred payment sections up to that date is not yet known. It is hardly credible that he could have abstracted and spent over £4OO within the last few weeks, and not have been doing the like with money received before that time. He seems, however, to have been hard up at the last, when finally detected, for only a few days before he was unable to account for a small sum received as clerk of the Court, and could not furnish the money. He must have known that he was officially under disgrace when lie went on his gay and expensive trip with his wife to Wanganui, where it is said he hived a footman pro tem. and she hired a maid. It is a curious feature in the case that Wilkinson has been receiving payments from deferred payment settlers whose land was within the Taranaki Land

District, but who bad been previously attached to the Patea district. The Taranaki Land Board are trying to ascertain what default he has made in their district. We print these statements on proper authority, but of course they remain to be proved by evidence, ami every prisoner is legally to be held innocent until proved guilty.