7

B.—l [Pt. ll].

vouchers for furniture loans to discharged soldiers who had made no application, representing a sum of £1,050. lie was arrested, and remanded pending the result of further inquiries. A fidelityguarantee policy exists, which operates to the Ist July, 1923. In the Magistrate's Court he pleaded guilty, and was sentenced by the Supreme Court to eighteen months' imprisonment with hard labour. G. Telford, temporary clerk in the District Repatriation Office, Wellington, left the Department on the 31st January, 1923, but when the matter of E. W. McCardell's shortages reported above was being looked into payors in three cases produced receipts signed by Telford for amounts which had not been accounted for. The police have the matter in hand. P. V. N. Coull, an officer formerly employed in the Wellington District Repatriation Office, was on the 20th June, 1923, charged in the Magistrate's Court with forging an application for a furniture loan of £50, and with conspiring to defraud the Government in connection with three other furniture loans of £50 each. Accused pleaded not guilty, and was committed to the Supreme Court, for trial, Thomas Wintringham, clerk, Repatriation Office, Christchurch, was reported to have been guilty of irregular practices, and the matter was referred to the police, who prosecuted on three charges of forgery. At the Supreme Court Wintringham was acquitted. Stamp Duties Department. R. C. Barkle, Correspondence and Record Clerk, Head Office, Stamp Duties Department, was called upon to explain various shortages in respect to incorporated societies' and companies' fees received by him. The matter was placed in the hands of the police, and at the Supreme Court Barkle pleaded guilty to theft of £5, and was admitted to probation for a period of two years, and ordered to pay the costs of the prosecution. Dismissed from the Service. Department of Tourist and Health Resorts. S. R. Edwards, senior clerk, Tourist Department, Rotorua, was discovered by the Audit Inspector to be £80 short in cash belonging to the Rotorua Town Account. He admitted the fact and made restitution. Following the usual practice, the matter was reported to the police, with the result that Edwards was sentenced in the Supreme Court to twelve months' reformative! treatment. Dismissed from the Service. A. B. Saunders, clerk, Department of Tourist and Health Resorts, was found by the Audit Inspector to have applied to his own use certain Government moneys, and the matter was placed in the hands of the police. Saunders appeared in the Supreme Court charged with the theft of £8, and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment. Further defalcations amounted bo £34 Is. 3d. Dismissed from the Service Valuation Department. Benjamin Carter, a clerk in the Valuation Department at Auckland, was suspended by his Permanent Head for absenting himself without leave and for disregard of instructions, On the Audit, Inspector making investigations be discovered that the books and documents had been manipulated and falsified, and that shortages of valuation lees existed to the extent of £233 4s. 6d. The, matter was placed in the hands of the police, and at the Magistrate's Court Carter pleaded guilty, and was subsequently sentenced by the Supreme Court to eighteen months' imprisonment with hard labour. Dismissed from the Service. Lands and Survey Department. William Holland Makin, farmer, Leonard Walter Makin, grocer, and Percy Dowling Hawkins, farmer, were charged in the Magistrate's Court, Wellington, with forgery and with theft of blank cheques alleged to have been stolen from the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Office, Wellington. They forged cheques and opened accounts at various branches of different banks, where they lodged the amounts of the forged cheques to the extent of nearly £12,000. The accused pleaded guilty, and were brought up in the Supreme Court; the Makins were sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labour, and Hawkins to reformative, detention for twelve months. /'ensions Department. Frank Smith, newsvendor, Christchurch, aged seventy years, when lodging an application for an old-age pension, failed to declare £150 which he had in the Savings-bank. He consequently was overpaid £18 by way of pension, which, with a penalty of £18, he paid to the Department when required to do so. In the Magistrate's Court he was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon. Payment of pension was stopped. Emily Wood, Invercargill, when her widow's pension was under review by the Stipendiary Magistrate in March, 1923, was shown to have knowingly collected a pension to which she, was not entitled. The police took the matter up, and she was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon and to refund £58. .lames Stuart, fanner, of Pohangina, by impersonating his deceased brother, fraudulently obtained two instalments of war pension amounting to £15 3s. 4d. He pleaded guilty, and was committed to the Supreme Court, where he was admitted to twelve months' probation. The amount was recovered. Mary o'Donoghue and Jeremiah O'Donoghue, of Timaru, fraudulently obtained old-age pensions to the extent of £55 10s. in excess of the amount to which they were entitled under the Pensions Act, 1913. The wife was prosecuted, but owing to advanced age (seventy-eight years) and apparent mental limitations, the Magistrate did not convict. He, however, gave judgment for the amount overpaid (£55 10s.), which has been refunded and paid to Public Account.