AN OFFICE SENSATION.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 700, 9 May 1916, Page 8

AN OFFICE SENSATION.

CIVIL SERVANTS' "TATTS" FUND. I There was much talk throughout the I Public Service iu Wellington on Satur- , 'lay respecting an alleged action of one of the assistant Public Service Com- ' missioners (says the ''Dominion"). It i appears, from the version of the aftair | given to a member of that journal's i staff, that some of the members of the staff of .one tiepartiuent had been in the habit of putting aside so much per month from their salaries with which Ito purchase tickets in Tattersall's sweeps, a fairly common practice, if, strictly speaking, an illegal one, with I many staffs, private ami public, in ' New Zealaml. This money was eol- '. lecte.l regularly by a certain member 'of the staff, ami was deposited in an old rash-box on the top of the office : safe. On Friday morning, so the story goes, one of the assistant Public Service Commissioners paid a visit to the department, took a pair of steps, mounted to the top of the safe, ami took pos- . session of the cash-box and the book ' in which is kept a record of the pay ' ments made towards the fund. Having (done this, it is stated that he asked the I chief officer present to take possession ' of the box and book pending enquiry. ; This the otlicer who had been approached declined to do, so the Commissioner I himself is said to have retained possession of the said articles. 1 After the Commissioner hail withl drawn, the chief official called his staff I together, and questioned them as to , the a'ffair, and asked one officer directly whether he had informed the Commissioner of the Tattersall's sweep matter. This officer admitted that he had j informed the Commissioner of what was I going on in the department. The chief's opinion of the matter is stated to have been scarcely complimentary to the person who had given the C'ommis- ; sioner the information, and as the lat- [ ter left the office at closing time some i thing in the nature of a demonstration I was made against him.