ANOTHER GRIEVANCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 13888, 24 October 1905, Page 5

ANOTHER GRIEVANCE.

THE. NEW LIBERAL CHARGES. [From Oob Correspondent.] WELLINGTON, October 23. The judicial inquiry regarding the Audit Department, with particular reference to the hoary and tattered voucher allegations was properly commenced this morning, and this afternoon Messrs Taylor and Fisher announced their entire dissatisfaction with the order of reference and their confident anticipation that their charges would not be thoroughly sifted. Mr Taylor opened, complaining that the Judges had refused to allow the parties to the affair to have access to all the books and documents they desired in order that they might prove their charges. “It is'perfectly clear,” he said, “ that the whole inquiry will be confined to a discussion of the system of audit, and there will be no chance at all of ascertaining whether or not these four men are right in their allegations. The Christchurch Post Office officials declare that there can he no possible doubt that a voucher representing this amount was paid to some one purporting to be Captain Seddon. They are sure the service described was the reorganisation of Defence stores. Since the Auditor-General’s inquiry, another point has come up. One of the Post Office clerks declares that if he had known when giving evidence befor© the Auditor-General that there was the slightest chance of the voucher not turning up when the vouchers for a certain sum of money were shown, he would have given fuller evidence. He gave simply the main facts of the case because 1 he believed that immediately Willie 'was allowed to look at certain vouchers the one they had seen would turnup, otherwise he would have told the Auditor-General that the voucher referred to was posted back to the Treasury Department with other vouchers. There is no human doubt that a voucher such as these men discussed went through the office. The question is, where is it? The order of reference has been made so narrow that the parties to the transaction cannot get unrestricted access to hooks and papers that they declare necessary if the truth is to be elicited. _ The men want the right to inspect any records which will show whether the voucher they saw was genuine, or whether it was a fraud practised upon them. I don’t know what is to be gained by these persistent and scientific efforts to prevent a full and complete search of the public records. If the Commission thought that a full and impartial inquiry was to be held it has laboured under a delusion.” At the order of the Speaker, Mr Taylor withdrew this insinuation against the Judges concerned. Mr Taylor’s efforts to infuse new life into these battered and decrepit statements did not arouse any sympathy in the House, and several members made protesting interjections. The Premier replied to Mr Taylor. He said that petitions had been presented to the House asking for a full public and unrestricted inquiry into the alleged payment to Captain Seddon of a sum of between £7O and £BO for the reorganisation of Defence stores at Christchurch. The Judges had accordingly been instructed to inquire whether a payment of between £7O and £BO, or any other sum, had been made to Captain Seddon at Christchurch, for the reorganisation of Defence stores or any other service. There had been no amendment in that commission. The fullest inquiry had been granted, and the Judges barred only matter that was clearly not relevant to the terras of the commission, yet before the mqqLry had been well started Mr Taylor announced that ho was entirely dissatisfied. Was that fair or reasonable? In face of the fact that everything asked for had been granted, it was quite evi-

; dent that Mr Taylor did not want an : inquiry, and did not want the matter : cleared up. Mr Taylor had hinted at ; fraud. Would anyone believe that all , the officers concerned had combined in I a fraud, a fraud quite pointless, be- | cause there was at the time no idea that the voucher would cvcar become a matter of public knowledge or interest. Ho thought the people of the colony realised that the inquiry was thorough, and complete. To say that the inquiry should cover all the transactions of the ! Audit Department, and not be confined to t:he charges made, was simply absurd. The originators of the charge wore endeavouring to got over their mistake by creating an impression, that some other payment bad been made at some other date and place for some , other purpose. Then Mr Fisher rushed iip with a charge of misrepresentation .against the Premier, and said that the inquiry would bo as abortive and unsatisfactory as that conducted by the AnditorGoneraL ■ Ho .subsided at last, and the House heaved a sigh of relief as the wearisome charges were relegated once mere to seclusion.