FINANCES OF TE KUITI.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 3105, 24 December 1921, Page 7

FINANCES OF TE KUITI.

DEFALCATION'S VQVSU. Defalcations were disclosed by the report, dated November 15. of the Government auditor, Mr I!. Wylie, on his annual audit of the hooks of the borough of Te Kuiti. This sensation followed closely on the death by suicide of Mr l'\ E. Lamb, the town clerk. The report stated, infer aha. that cheques totalling £466 18s 7d had not been accountor! for " The cash book showed an apparent surplus of £54 9s Id. making a net deficiency ol £412 9s 3d. .There were numerous instances of other irregularities which had been rectified before the examm. ation. No claims had been made for subsidy on rates for five years, and no claim | jr refund of expenditure incurred during the Prince of Wales's visit. It would appear, also, that a largo sum wa.s owing by , )m . 'firm io the council for water, which hud not been supplied by meter. Rates oil lhe property recently sold by the late town clerk had not been paid for several years and there was now due the sum ol £73 14s 6il, with penalties-, amounting to J-J6 5s 6d. i'he net amount due to the council by the late town clerk's stale was est iinated at £530 7s 3d. This report came subsequently before the borough council, when the Mayor (Mr 11. Iline) stated that since the compilation ol ,| ie report further defalcations amounting to £so' had been discovered by the department The Prime Minister had refused the council's application for the pavmenl of accrued subsidies t'lom 1913, totalling £«W. as he was unwilling to create a precedeni in thai mailer. , ' 1, was a remarkable thing, said a councillor, that for all those years the auditor bad been going through the books and had passed them, and the ratepayers had taken his word for it. , .. The matter was laid aside for fuller (lispassion at the nest meeting of the council.