EXTRA EDITION. VOUCHER MYSTERY AGAIN.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 58, 6 September 1905, Page 8

EXTRA EDITION. VOUCHER MYSTERY AGAIN.

ANOTHER PETITION TO PARLIAMENT MR. FISHER'S WITNESSES. REQUEST FOR FULL PUBLIC INVESTIGATION. In tho House of Representatives this afternoon, Mr. Taylor presented a petition from Messrs Willis, Larcombe, West, and Lundon, praying for a full public enquiry into the alleged improper payment to Captain Seddon. A motion by Mr. Taylor that the petition be read was challenged by Mr. Houston, and was carried by 45 to 17. The petition was then read as follows : To The Honourable, The Speaker and Member's of the House of Representatives, "The petition of your humble petitioners, Joseph Willis, William John Larcombe, Thomas Walter West, and David Hobson Lundon, Clerks employed in the Chief Post Office, Christchurch, shewcth : "We havo carefully perused the whole of the evidenco which accompanied the report of the AuditorGeneral dealing with the voucher connected with the payment to Captain R. J. S. Seddon of a sum of money for reorganising the Defence Stores, and after cnieful perusal, we again affirm that the evidence we gave is absolutely truo. We do not know why tho Departmental enquiry has failed to disclose the records which would, if produced, substantiate our statements. • "One of your petitioners, Joseph ' Willis, was deputed to scrutinise certain vouchers amongst which we expected the voucher we handled would be found. Not finding it within the limited area of records he was permitted to inspect, he applied to be allowed to see tho Treasury books • and certain other vouchers which might throw light upon the matter involved. This request was not granted. "We beg to draw the attention of your honourable House to the fact that tho recent Departmental enquiry was appointed at the request of the Treasury and Defence officers and to vindicate their honour by ascertaining whether the certificates they had issued regarding the matter in dispute were truo in substance and fact. We have before petitioned your Honourable House for tho appointment of a full public enquiry with an unre- < stricted order of reference. We are confident that the evidence tendered by us was true in every particular, and we again pray you to grant tho enquiry wo have pleaded for all along. , "We want the value of all the cvi- . deace to be tested by cross-examina-tion. We want the most searching investigation possible. Our honour is involved. If we have been guilty of making false statements we havo ■^ deserved to be punished with the ut- " most severity, but if we are truthful witnesses we claim that your Honourable House should grant us tho immediate appointment of a competent judicial tribnnal with unrestricted power of investigation. "And your petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray, "(Signed) "J. WILLIS, > "W. J- LAKCOMBE, "T,. W. WEST, "D. H. LUNDON." Mr. Taylor moved that the petition be referred direct to the A to L Public Petitions Committee. These men, he said, were his constituents, and they had asked him to- bring the petition before tho House. A member: Are there many more like them? ' Mr. Taylor said any man might be proud to represent men who had so much courage. This matter was one that ought not to be buried. These men contended that their assertions were proved, and that they had been denied access to records which had been thrown open to others. It was urged all along that these men should come into the open, and they did so, and although there was some doubt as to their evidence, the fact remained that they were men with clean records, they were men of long experience, and they declared that they again affirmed that the evidence they gave was absolutely true, and asked for a full public enquiry, which had been pleaded for all along. fTha Premier said there was one feature the House should notice — that Mr. Taylor -was asking to contravene the Standing Ord-srs. Tho first name on ,fiho petition was thai of Willis, and 'Mr. Taylor wa tried to refer the petition to the Ato L Committee. He thought he voiced the opinion oi members when he oaid he thought Mr. Taylor was a3 much implicated as the petitioners, but he Tefrained from doing so, and lie thought he was justified in raying 'that the matter was. still before the House, and that a question on the subject was on the Order Paper for to-day, and ha thought the petition should 'be dealt with by some other committee. Tho petition Bhould be sent to the proper committee, wmch waa not the A to L, but the M io Z Petitions Committee. Mr. Taylor, he remarked, was a member of 'the A to L Committee. Mr. Fisher said Mr. Taylor had nothing whatever to do with bringing this matter before the House. As to the committee, he did not care which committee it went to. The Minister for Justice said he had no desire for the petition to be referred to any Special Committee, but tho Standing Orders should be observed, and he moved as an amendment that the petition be referred direct to the M to Z Public Petitions Committee Sir. J. G. Ward referred to a published statement by Mr. Taylor that he did not think Sir Joseph Ward would, in the face of a strong public opinion, dismiss these men, and that if anyone was to go it would be Sit Joseph Ward. (Laughter.) As Minister in charge of the Postal Department he had refrained from saying anything that would savour of intimidation, There had been no interference with them in any respect whatever, but any inference that made the suggestion that he was afraid to do his duty to the public was entirely wrong. The public looked to him to do what was right to the officer? and tho public, and when the time arrived he should do his duty_ari3 ask the House and the public to stand by him. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Fisher corroborated this by saying 1 that instructions wore given by the Post-master-General that overy facility was to be given to these men to make good their case. The petition was referred direct to the M to Z Public Petitions Committee, and the incident closed. MR. FISHER'S APOLOGY. PRESS COMMENTS. [BY TEI,KQEArn — OWN CORHESrONDE'IT. J DUNEDIN, This Day. The .Otajzo Daily Times says the Audi-

tor-General's report left Mr. Fisher no option as an honourable man but to acknowledge his error and apblogise.Though it was tardily made it was -unquestionably demanded of him. In view of the evidence of the four Civil Servants the Times holds that a mystery still exists as to the document, which these officials declare they handled in the Christchurch Post Office, and says the public will bo somewhat curious to see how the Premier treats Mr. Fisher's challenge to take tho initiative in having the matter completely sifted. The Star thinks Mr. Fisher would have adopted the only manly course left open to him had he not qualified his "apology" by an appeal for further enquiry in order to save the faces of the Civil Servants who had dragged him into trouble. The suggestion that a forged document was handled by these men is so childish as to bo unworthy of a monenl's serious consideration.