CIVIL SERVANT'S FALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18171, 17 August 1922, Page 9

CIVIL SERVANT'S FALL.

STAMPS. AND DOCUMENTS. TWO YEARS' DETENTION. As briefly reported by telegram, William Nevfll Ward appeared m' the Supreme Court in Wellington this week, betore the Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, to answer nine separate indictments' charging him with fraudulent concealment of 299 documents, theft of stamps and money to the value of £155, the fraudulent obliteration of 108 documents affecting the. tr&nsfer and registration of native lands, the forgery of leases from certain natives affecting lands in the Horowhenua district, and the forgery of orders of th e Native Land Court affecting lands in the same district. The accused, a civil servant, pleaded guilty on three counts, and not guilty on the remaining counts, the documents and stamps referred to being the properties of the New Zealand and in the accused's care during a period when ho was in charge of such matters. Mr. P. 6. K. Macassey prosecuted Jor the Crown, Mr. H. F. O'Leary appearing for the prisoner. The Crown accepted the prisoner's pleas, evidence as to the accused's previous, good character and conduct being given by a number of witnesses. /Born in India, it was alleged that, in 1896, the accused had been removed from the roll of solicitors in Otaki for his omission to record a certain bankruptcy, and he was given his position in the Native Lands Office, in 1903, because of h's considerable, knowledge of native lands and work connected with them. Instead of an annual leave of three weeks, accused was alleged to have reonly 17 days' holiday during the past six years, so great had been the. pressure of work on that office." Evidence on the prisoner's behalf showed, also, that, in' . certain cases where the necessary cash wae not sent to his! office promptly, the accused himself was expected to ■ finance temporarily the stamping of documents; and that fact, together with his own work falling into arrears, bad led to the prisoner's Incoming muddled and confused. Counsel submitted that accused could have destroyed tho documents affected, but he had evidently valued them as legally important; and since his arrest he had done all he could to try and discover missing documents. The Court's leniency was asked for, on, account of accused's crippled son, to whom he was greatly devoted; his family also being much in need of accused's support. The ago of the accused was given as 68. During his outline of the charges, M*. Macassey stated that the actual ' value of the stamps stolen was now ' ascertained to be about £300. His Honor said that, in such a serious ' case, ho could not possibly grant probation. He must sentence the accused ; to two years' reformative detention.