201

change in favour of the Provincial Agents,
and the third of the set deposited in the Trea-
sury as a voucher. He offers no proof of the
bills having been remitted to England; and
the case is open to suspicion on the following
grounds:—That the bills were purchased in
duplicate; that the first of the set is supposed
to be lost; that the second of the set was not
posted until four months after the first; that
the bills were not purchased of the Bank;
moreover, the receipt from Mr. Paterson was
improperly obtained, and in no way relieves
the Superintendent from his liability to the
Crown.

It is also to be observed that the money
ought not to have been withdrawn from the
Bank by the Superintendent. His Honor was
not entitled to receive it on any grounds.
According to the provisions of the "Execu-
tive Council Ordinance of 1854," the Provin-
cial Treasurer is the proper officer to receive
and pay all monies on behalf of the Province.
The Superintendent is under no bond for the
security of the public, and it is clearly an
evasion of the law to issue to him public
monies for payment of claims on the Provin-
cial Treasury. The Provincial Treasurer
should have remitted the money to England.

It is recommended that the Superintendent
should be required to give security for the
due appropriation of the money; or else to re-
pay the amount into the Provincial chest,
subject to the condition of its being refunded
to him on producing a sufficient voucher.

DEFICIENCY OF THE PUBLIC MONIES
AT THE BANK.

By the regulations of the Provincial Go-
vernment, the Treasurer was required to keep
the Provincial funds at the Bank, with the
exception of a sum for petty cash, which was
not at any time to exceed £500. The petty
cash was in charge of the Accountant, to
whom it was chargeable. By the Provincial Trea-
surer usually by cheques on the Bank, but
sometimes in cash.

No formal instructions appear to have been
issued for the regulation of the Provincial
Treasury. The Accounts were kept in an
irregular and objectionable manner. The
Cash book at no time exhibited the transac-
tions as they actually occurred. It only never
shewed the balance with which the Treasurer
was really chargeable. Cash transactions of
one quarter were frequently shewn in the
Cash book among those of the prior quarter,
and sometimes among those of the succeeding
quarter. The Bank book alone shewed the
transactions chronologically arranged; but as
large cash payments were made out of the
petty cash (in one quarter amounting to
£7500), the Accountant sets he was unable
from the books in the Treasury to determine
the correct cash balance.

The Provincial Treasurer was also Treasurer
of the Road Board and of the Board of Edu-
cation. The balance of the Road Board funds
sometimes exceeded £1400; from the 1st July
1859 to the 29th September 1860 it varied
from about £900 to £700. The Provincial
account money, and the monies belonging to
the Road and Education Boards were sever-
ally kept in separate bags deposited in the

iron safe connected with the Treasury Office.
The Auditors of the Road and Education
Boards, when examining the accounts, did not
ask for the exhibition of the money belonging
to those Boards, and it was not exhibited to
them. And the Provincial Auditors, when
they examined the Treasury chest, never asked
for exhibition of the other funds. During the
period over which the present enquiry more
particularly extends—that is, from 1st Octo-
ber 1859 to the 30th September 1860—the
Provincial Auditors, from some misapprehen-
sion, did not verify the cash in the Treasury
chest by counting it; so that there is no means
of knowing what amount of funds were at any
time in the hands of the Treasurer; and no
check can be applied to any statement he may
make as to the amount. Under this defective
scrutiny he could at any time make good the
Provincial funds, by transferring the necessary
amount from the Road Board balance, out of
which few payments were at any time made.

The Superintendent being desirous to prove
that to a considerable extent and for a long
period Mr. McGlashan, the Provincial Trea-
surer, had made use of public monies, the fol-
lowing is the result of the Commissioner's en-
quiries:

According to the statement furnished by the
Accountant of the Provincial Treasury, there
were no deficiencies in the Treasurer's balance
up to the 30th September, 1859.

On the 31st December, 1859,
the apparent deficiency was £365 7 2
On the 20th February, 1860 1,010 9 5
On the 31st March, 1860 ... 1,324 11 10
On the 30th June, 1860..... 1,251 0 3

And on the 30th—and the following, there
was none. The Accountant states that in de-
termining these, he has given the Treasurer
due credit for payments at Invercargill, and
for advances on account of "wages, public
works." It is necessary to observe this, be-
cause the Treasurer in his explanations has
often alluded to these payments as increasing
his apparent deficiency.

The Treasurer in his evidence states, that
the deficiencies were principally in the hands
of the Superintendent, to whom he had lent
the money, and the remainder was in his chest;
or, if not there, that the deficiency was ap-
parent—not real—and arose from his not re-
ceiving full credit for monies issued.

Eventually the deficiencies were made good,
and the balance for the September Quarter,
1860, is found correct. £970 appears to have
been recovered from the Superintendent. The
remainder was supplied out of those daily in
and out of cash stated to have been in the
chest, distinct from the petty cash in the hands
of the Accountant.

Referring to the deficiency on the 31st
December, 1859, amounting to £365 7s. 2d.,
the Treasurer at that time had no authority to
retain petty cash in his hands, except for the
wages of the men employed on the public
Works, for which he receives full credit in
striking the above balance (£365 7s. 2d.).
There are no means now of determining
whether the deficient cash was in the chest,
and the only evidence which throws any sus-
picion on this point is,—that in the month of
November, 1859, Mr. McGlashan paid £500
in discharge of his private acceptance at the
Bank. It will presently be seen that the de-
ficiency on the 28th February following, after