The Patea Mail. Established 1875. MONDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1882. EMBEZZLING COUNTY FUNDS

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 973, 18 December 1882, Page 2

The Patea Mail. Established 1875. MONDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1882. EMBEZZLING COUNTY FUNDS

The report of the Provincial District Auditor, published in onr impression of Friday, is a heavy and 'damaging indictment against the County Council and officers. The delay in its publication too, is not creditable to the Council. It looks as though they knew they were guilty of neglecting .their duties, but were anxious that the public should get used to the rumours that something was wrong with the County affairs, so that when the truth came to light they might be prepared for it, and not sustain a nervous shock. Now that the worst is known general indignation will be felt , that. the Council, however blind they had been, on receipt of the report, did not rise to the occasion, and at once proceed to deal out justice to the offenders. ' They should have said, ff We have been careless and allowed these men to steal the people’s money ; we are to blame, but-we will stand our share and see that the. others get their deserts,” Had they done that the members of the Patea County Council would have stood higher in the estimation of their fellow settlers than tl>ey (jo to-day. Instead, however, of acting promptly, and as they are plainly

directed by law, what did they do. The report is dated Sept. 29th, and for a period of two and a half months it is bottled up in the Coancil’s office, where it may have been seen by two or three who knew sufficient of the law to ask for it, or perhaps by a few to whom it was shown by way of curiosity or favour. That mode of procedure was, we submit, not the proper one to have pursued under the circumstances. By allowing the facts to leak out little by little, 'no doubt the keen edge of public opinion, which would have been directed against Councillors as guardians of the public purse, has been blunted, but it is nevertheless felt r we are sure, by a majority, that theyihave been one and all guilty of gross neglect, and that it has taken them nearly three months to summon up sufficient moral courage to own it. What, then, is the next step intended to be taken ?. Is the late Treasurer to be allowed to go at large ; to set the laws at defiance and laugh np his sleeve at the successful way in which he has managed to hoodwink the Council ? or is ho to bo arrested as a defaulter, and his . conduct investigated in a court of justice. Mr Black seems to have been carrying on his game wholesale. Rents, rates, licenses, or Hospital payments, it mattered not which, passed ; through his hands and vanished in the process nobody knows whore.. Are the councillors , going to wait until Mr Black follows the example of the missing rates and vanishes also ? • They seem anxious that he should do so for they have given him plenty of opportunity. Had Mr Black been in a different position, in fact had he been a poor labouring man, he would have been in gaol two months; ago. But we have once more seen an example of how “ circumstances alter cases.” It is unnecessary to say anything about the Dog-tax collector. He apparently is to be made an example of for the benefit of evil doers. But there is another officer of the Council who does not, and wo regret to say. it, come out of this affair altogether with credit. ,We mean Mr Harden, the County Engineer. He,* according • to the report, received a sum of money from the Hospital attendant and this found its way 1 into his own pocket instead of into the coffers of the Council. : Whe'n the Auditor makes the discovery a private cheque is forthcoming to square the matter np. We believe Mr Hayden’s excuse is that the Treasurer being absent, he did not know whom to give the money to ; 1 and (hat when asked for it by the Auditor, he immediately gave it up. That at best is a lame plea; because Mr Harden must have understood sufficient 'of the ' Counties’ Act to have known that the money should liave been paid into the Bank within a certain time after its receipt.' We acquit the Engineer of anything beyond possessing a share of the laxity which seems to have pervaded everything and everybody connected with the Council, and the want of ordinary business knowledge, which should have told him that he had no right to keep money belonging to the County, Turning once more to the Councillors it seems incredible to us how they can have gone on, in such a happy-go-lucky style. They must, or ought to, have known that they should have had .certain revenues coming in, and if the bank book,showed they were not to hand, one would have thought some effort would have been made to have ascertained the; reason. Everything appears to have been left to Mr Black with no supervision. And, to some extent, we.blame Councillors for the unfortunate position in which Mr Black finds; himself to-day,: Unable to resist temptation, his downfall has been rendered easier by the carelessness oL those whose duty it should have 1 been to see that he was doing his duty. If report is correct, moreover, we think, the Provincial Auditor is somewhat to blame. It is said, that on previous occasions be found 1 that Mr Black was back-sliding. A’ word to the Chairman of 1 the Council would have saved the Treasurer, because; vigilance would have taken the place of indifference, and -a check would have been put upon his actions. Was that word given ; if not, why not? Painful as this subject is to all concerned, it is to none more so than to; ourselves. To speak ill of a public! officer or private individual is one of the last things we can bring ourselves to do; but, in the public interest, we deemed it our duty to write what we have. To our mind the course of the Council is clear. They have no right to prosecute Beamish and allow a greater offender to go free; and they should be careful that no one in their service shall mistake County money for his own,"and not discern the difference until a Government officer points it but. Mistakes of this nature are awkward, and opt to lead to serious consequences, and it should be the Council’s care that a recurrence cannot possibly happen. And it a couple of. the Councillors would retire to allow the introduction of men with business experience, public confidence would be greatly restored. Good management is all that is required to pull the County out of its present difficulties, and to secure good management the public should take more interest in their own affairs. Then such lach.es as have disgraced Patea would never occur.