The Star. SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1881. THE EMBEZZLEMENT CASE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume II, Issue 113, 14 May 1881, Page 2

The Star. SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1881.

THE EMBEZZLEMENT CASE.

Now that one of the charges of embezzlement preferred against E. C. Wilkinson has been heard, and the unfortunate young man has been sentenced to five years' penal- servitude, as a punishment for the offence, the case becomes publio property, and certainly invites comment. The facts of the case may be briefly described thus: — Instructions were first issued to Mr. Wilkinson, as Eeceiver of Land Revenue, on 3rd November, 1880, according to whioh he was required to enter daily all monies received in certain books/ to pay all monies daily into the

bank at Hawera to the deposit account of the Eeceiver of Land Eevenue at Carlyle, and to send a copy of eachjof his cash books, a full statement of all receipts, every week down to the Eeceiver at Carlyle. Frozn 3rd November to the 14th February, during which period considerably more than £26,000 passed through Wilkinson's hands, these instructions were entirely ignored. There was not a single entiy made in any one of the cash books at the Hawera Land Office, and consequently there was not a single weekly copy of the entries in those books ever sent to Pat r% a. Bank receipts and slips were accepted as satisfactory, and for some weeks, Wilkinson, having given out that he had inherited a legacy, made ducks and drakes of the Government money, which was passing through his hands, some of it absolutely unchecked, and much of it unaccounted for.

The magnitude of the temptation to which Wilkinson was thus exposed by the negligence of his superiors in office can hardly be appreciated, unless the fact is kept constantly in view that he, a married man, was receiving only £135 a year, while more than £26,000 passed through his hands within about three months. Some ludges have laid it down as an axiom, that where a man yields to sudden and great temptation, placed directly in his path by the culpable carelessness of his superiors in office, the crime is one to be deplored rather than severely punished. History proves daily that there are many weak, though, under ordinary circumstances, strictly honorable men, who cannot resist the temptation of helping themselves to money placed apparently within their reach, with little apparent risk of detection; deceiving themselves with the sophistry that they are only borrowing, and will pay it back before it can be missed. Poor Wilkinson had ample excuse for thinking he would be able to do so.

However, a scapegoat has now Ken found and duly sacrificed ; the late Eeceiver of Land Eevenue at Patea has resigned ; and so far as the public are aware, the only responsible official, who is allowed to come out of the business without blame, is the Commissioner of Crown Lands. It may not be very generally known, but there are some countries, Prussia for instance, where, under like circumstances, the man who would have received the heaviest punishment would probably have been the Commissioner himself. Heads of departments are there held responsible for the errors of their 'subordinates, as are commanders in the army and navy during war. The chiefs are first called upon to exonerate themselves from, blame ; to show that defalcations, if such take place, could not have extended far unchecked; and that the precautions they had taken could only have been evaded by a cunningly-devised and elaborate system of forgery or fraud. In the case before us, a new department, partly under the control of the newlyappointed Commissioner of Crown Lands for the West Coast District, with two money - receiving offices attached, was suddenly called into being. It is true the Commissioner admits having advised that the county-town should be the only receiving office, and judging by what followed, by the entire absence of supervision and control, the three months' neglect of any inspection of the books at the Hawera office — judging, in fact, by the deliberate manner in which things at the Hawera Land Office were allowed to drift into confusion, the conviction is forced upon us that it was hoped, if not intended, that the extra office should be wrecked for the want of a pilot. Of course, if any attempt had been made to fill up the vacant Eeceiversbip at Hawera, the above conclusion might appear unwarranted. But now three months have passed away, and no Land Eeceiver has been appointed, and the Land Eeceiver at Patea does all the work, exactly in the manner originally recommended by the Commissioner of Crown Lands. The desired end appears to have been accomplished, but at what a fearful cost I Eveiy one believes that Mr. Wray honestly and sincerely regrets the misfortunes which have befallen his two first Eeceivers of Land Eevenue. The public are quite prepared to make every possible allowance for the confusion caused by the double jurisdiction exercised over Land Eevenue Eeceivers by the Treasury and the Crown Lands Departments. But they cannot shut their eyes to the outcome of the business; they have and desire to express their sympathy with the sufferers ; and the facts before them impress them with an uneasy conviction that there has been some fishing in troubled waters, and that while tho Commissioner has caught his fish, the district has lost, not the Hawera, but the District Land Office.

One other pertinent question arises out of this case, namely — How came it that neither the Audit nor the Treasury Department were able to check any of the long-continued defalcations, without the assistance of the Commissioner? A system cannot be worth much, under which an open course of plundering can be continued unchecked and unsuspected for weeks. Even the ordinary checks available, the extra blocks in the receipt books, were not filled up and forwarded to their respective departments. Unfortunately, the matter does not end here ; the mutual guarantee for the honesty of their fellows, into which all Civil Servants enter, renders the whole body liable for the refund of the £400 or £500 missing. The chances are that every man who is taxed will be very anxious that every official for whose laxity each Civil Servant has to suffer, will be fitly reprimanded.