FINANCIAL SCANDAL AT THE CAPE

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 2, 8 April 1876, Page 3

FINANCIAL SCANDAL AT THE CAPE

Ixi’omrATiox was brought by the Cape mail of the arrest of Mr A. J. Van Breda, Assistant Treasurer-General, for theft. The amount declared to be missing is ,£525509 Gs Bd, spread over a period of fifteen years ; and owing to the way in which some of the books had been allowed to fall into arrears—some not having been written up for teir years—it lias taken more than six months to detect the defalcation. It is alleged that Breda was in the habit of obliging Ids friends periodically with loans from the public chest, talcing their “good fors” as security for the money lent. The Hon. P. E. de Boubaix, the absentee member of the Legislative Council, is said to have received £9,P>l3 in this way. Mr. J. G. Clocto, another “friend” in the Treasury Department, received various sums from time to time, amounting, according to one affidavit, to £I,OOO. It would appear from the revelations already published that several persons, both in and out of the Cape Civil Service’ had advances of the public money from Breda, some of which have been repaid, but the majority have not. De Boubaix had £750 or £BOO from Breda on condition that he voted against the introduction of responsible government, and he caused much disgust by voting for it almost immediately after ho received the money. Dc Boubaix is said to have been in great straits at the time, and the celebrated diamond snuff-box played an important part in the transaction. Mr J. G. Clocto and Breda used to be constantly engaged iu bill transactions with each other, and Breda used to endorse Cloeto’s bills. Breda had a share in a claim at the diamond .fields, and it is believed that he sank a good deal Of money there/ On the last examination of the public chest during Mr Breda’s tenure of ofiicO Bergh was not allowed by him' to be present. The Treasurer-General, .liefer, it seems, had the key .of the chest in’ his own pOssessiOii;- It- is eOHsiddrccP strafigo

that Mr Bergh did not make his revelation before, and that he has sultered fit teen years to go by without reporting these matters to the Government.