THE LATE DEFALCATIONS IN WESTLAND.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 549, 31 August 1869, Page 2

THE LATE DEFALCATIONS IN WESTLAND.

The "Westland County Council met again last week. The meeting, says a correspondent of the Greymouth Star, was a most unsatisfactory one. The books of the county have been so badly kept,, and the various expenditures and receipts are so muddled, that nothing can be made of them. Mr Lahman, who has been performing, pro Ten:., the duties of County Treasurer, in reply to Mr Button's demand for a complete statement of accounts, instead of a mere formal balance-sheet which had been prepared, said that if Councillors wished to know ho could lay the books on the table for them to examine for themselves, The books, ho said, had been kept in a wretched way. lie would do the best he could to make things clear. But I toll you that neither Mr Lahman nor anyone (except perhaps a highly compotent professional accountant) will be able to make anything of them. Tho books have been kept for a purpose, and that purpose was that nothing should ever be made of them. My opinion is, that instead of attempting to elucidate what will never be elucidated, it will be better to draw a line through everything and begin again. The acting treasurer acknowledges that the financial half-year of the County Council commences with 3 debt of tea thousand pounds, which, by the way, the Estimates make no provision to liquidate. The estimated receipts for the half-year ending December next are £57,4:00. The exqonditure £53.5-12—leaving a surplus of not quite £4OOO ; and that is always i supposing that the estimated receipts come up to the mark, and that the expenditure does not exceed it. Down in the receipts, under the head of " incidental," is £2OOO to be recovered on the late " defalcation?,"a sum not likely to be recovered, as Jit Lahman should know if he had read the security bond of the late County Treasurer. One of the County Councillors, who is well-up in figures and has given considerable attention to details, gives the following rough and rather graphic estimate of the state of the County incomings and outgoings for the next six months: —"Receipts, instead of £57,-100, will be £49,000, there or thereabouts—more or less, but most likely less. Expenditure—as much more as the County can obtain credit for. Assistance from the General Government— nil. Resultgeneral dissatisfaction among tho County creditors, and a public appeal for the annulment of the County oi Westland Act, which many are now asking for."