THE EVEILLE FRAUDA AT MELBOURNE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5637, 10 December 1879, Page 6

THE EVEILLE FRAUDA AT MELBOURNE.

The Melbourne correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald gives the following respecting tho above remarkable case:—"Few things have happened more calculated to shake tha common trust than tho discovery of the dishonesty of the late James Eville, Town Clerk of Km-rald Hill. His death caused a feeling of universal regret, and his funeral was one of the largest which ever entered the gates of the Melbourne Cemetery. He was a mau whom everybody would have trusted, and ay .inst whom never a breath of suspiciion had bten utterei. He numbered his frieuds by thousands, and was a welcome guest wherever he went. He was such a cheery, bright faced man—the sort of man that children love and dogs never bark at. Xow that it has been discovered that he had embezzled the mony of the Corporation, of which he w-s the servant, nobody can say that \va3 what might have been expected, for he lived domestically a quiet life. He had the appearance of a man who saved money, aud, considering his many opportunities of investing money, the wonder is he did not become rich. Aud ho was an especially temperate mau ; he never speculated, ao far as is known ; he never betted, and he had no expensive hobbi-3. The natural inquiry, of course, came up, who is she ? To look at him, he was one of the least likely men ia the world to be entangled in any folly such as this inquiry would point to. It is a'l a mystery, and the mystery is further increased by the coincidence of his death nitb the date of the audit of his accounts. There is, in fact, and uot to extend the mystery further, every reason to think that he poisoned himself, a_d his case i 3 one of the many which shew the necessity.of α-post mortem examination in every instance of sudden, death. The medical man who was called in to him when he was found dying is a young practitioner, who, coupling the symptoms with all the circumstances, might very easily have confounded narcotic poisoning with serous apoplexy. It has been suggested that the body should be exhumed, but one cannot see for what purpose other than to satisfy public curiosity. His history and death represent another of those domestic tragedies which happen much more frequently than is supposed. The unrecorded romance of everyday life is in excess of all the written talesaud dramas that ever were put together. The worst of such histories as that of James tville is, that it makes one suspect everybody. On the other hand, it shows the need of thoroughness in the audit of public accounts. It is obvious that the audit of the municipal account at Emerald Hill has never been an efficient one. It his been apparently always concluded that so trustworthy a public servant as James Eville could not poseibly do wrong Hia books have been supposed to be well kept, as a matter of course, and the official inspection of them has been also, as a matter of course, nominal and perfunctory. If ho suffered any fear of detection he never showed it, for no man ever had a face more free from care. He was ready with a merry jesb on a'l occasions, aud he was tho beet punster I ev.-r knew. All hia friends are loth to think ill of him now that he is gone."