213

Accountant's answer, which he has now explained to me arose from a mutual misunderstanding.

Q. Produce the Education Board account and point out where the £600 to which you refer will be brought to charge?

A. Produced accordingly.

Q. It appears from your statement that the loans to Mr. Macandrew outstanding on the 20th September last amounted to £836 13s. 4d. State when and how the repayments were made by Mr. Macandrew, and what is the sum now outstanding?

A. I retained in payment of the monthly salaries for September, October, and November £150 0 0
I got a cheque from him by Mr. Logan, the Superintendent's Clerk, for 120 0 0
And I got cash from him on the day of the Auditor's final report in October 400 0 0

Leaving a balance of 670 0 0
166 13 4

£836 13 4

He now disputes that balance and says he is owing only £16 13s. 4d., alleging that in the note made out by us, a copy of which I have given in, we had omitted to deduct the first of the salaries, viz., that for May, in which he is correct; and that, besides the above sum, he paid me £100 since the date of the cheque, which is not the case.

Q. Will you refer to page 4 of the printed Report of the Select Committee, where you will find that Mr. Kilgour states in his evidence that you informed him officially that part of the Road Board balance was in the hands of the Superintendent?

A. Mr. Kilgour has misunderstood my statement. I did not reveal to Mr. Kilgour how matters stood till near the date of the Auditors' final Report, at which time the Superintendent was endeavouring to get some bill discounted at the Oriental Bank, as I understood. I told the Superintendent that it would be right then to tell Mr. Kilgour, and he consented to my doing so. I then mentioned to Mr. Kilgour that I had applied part of the Road money to make up the balance at 30th September. I may add that I requested the Superintendent also to see Mr. Kilgour, which he did.

Two days after the evidence in question, No. 35 to 37, was taken, Mr. M'Glashan made the following statement:—

"I told the Superintendent and also the Auditors that I had applied part of the Road money to make good the balance of the Provincial accounts. The Superintendent requested me not to disclose the matter to Mr. Street. I so applied the Road money to afford the Superintendent further time to make good the sum in his hands. I was then suspicious, and am now morally certain from his conduct towards me since the appointment of the Select Committee, that had I replaced the balance in his hands out of my own money, he would not have repaid me, but left me to rank along with his ordinary creditors. It was on my application to the Executive that the Auditors of the Provincial Accounts were appointed to audit the Road Board account contrary to the usual practice (the Board being authorised to appoint Auditors), in order that all the accounts might be reported on by the same Auditors; and it was arranged that their report on each of them should be delayed till the whole had been audited and the balance of each placed in Bank.
(Signed) "J. M'GLASHAN."

Q. Mr. Kilgour states that the Superintendent told him that he (the Superintendent) had only £400 of the Road Board balance, the remainder being in the Treasurer's hands. Have you any explanation to offer on this point?

A. Mr. Kilgour must either have mistaken what the Superintendent said, or the Superintendent must have made an erroneous statement. He had no part of the Road money in his hands. In reference to the amount stated to be outstanding, £616 13s. 4d. was the balance of Provincial monies in the Superintendent's hands.

Q. The Auditors on the 24th October last found the full balance of 30th September 1860 lodged at the Bank: state how the deficiency of the previous quarter's account had been made good.

A. By the payments received from the Superintendent, part of the Road money in my hands, and the sum in my hands for petty cash.

Note by the Commissioner.—The Road Board money was paid in on 24th October, so that it could not have been used for the purpose stated; and the petty cash remained in the hands of Mr. Street.

Q. Did you make the repayments into the Bank, or hand the money to Mr. Street? and did you explain to Mr. Street what monies they were, and did you instruct him to treat them as petty cash?

A. I am not quite sure if any of the money was paid into Bank. I did not explain to Mr. Street, so far as I remember, what monies they were, but I may have done so. Some of the Superintendent's payments were, I think, known to Mr. Street to be applied as petty cash. All monies I pay out of the Chest are handed to Mr. Street.

Q. Did you take a receipt from Mr. Street for each sum handed to him as petty cash?

A. No; I received jottings from Mr. Street of sums wanted by him, which I keep till I see the vouchers, and then destroy.

Q. Have you any other documents to hand in, in support of your statement that the monies were advanced from the Provincial Accounts, and not from private funds?

A. I have other two notes of the Superintendent; but as one bears "Tear this up and put it in the fire," and the other bears "Tear this up at once," I have scruples about giving them in without the Superintendent's consent, or a peremptory order on me to give them in. And I beg to explain, that these and the other notes having been put into my drawers on receiving them, have been preserved without premeditation.

The whole of the Questions from 1 to 41, with the replies, were left with the Superintendent for his remarks. His observations will be found under the evidence given by his Honor.

Q. In the month of February, 1860, there was a deficiency in the Bank account, after allowing for the sums lent to Mr. Macandrew, of about £500. In that month you