390
examined in detail. Further discrepancies were also found by letters received as late as July from the General Post Office London pointing out errors in the accounts of Barradas.
As regards the Local Accounts, no real idea of their state could be formed. The Cash Book was not written up from November, 1889, and the Ledger was only posted to December, 1888. The lists of orders received from other places had not the dates of payment of orders set off on them and it was impossible to say even approximately what the amount of unpaid orders was. Mr. LISTER estimated them at $1,000 and the unpaid local orders have since proved to be $5,275.
Owing also to the Ledger not being posted Mr. LISTER had no means of know- ing that the accounts with India, Ceylon, Singapore and Bangkok had not been settled up for the fourth quarter of 1889.
At the time of BARRADAS' flight it was necessary to carry on the work of the Money Order Department without causing inconvenience to the Public and the staff at the disposal of Mr. LISTER was hardly sufficient to do this and much loss. to make up correct statements of the wilfully complicated accounts of BARRADAS. To make the appended statements clear to anyone who has not carefully examined the accounts complicated as they were made by the way in which BARRADAS kept his books and also owing to the further complications due to the constant varying rates of exchange the following explanations may be of use.
In statement A which shews the sums short paid to the Treasury to meet advices to Crown Agents in the amount shewn for 1890 an arbitrary rate of 3/2 has been adopted for the advices. It was necessary to do this as the system of dealing with the Crown Agents' accounts, is, at the end of the year, to take the average rate at which bills have been sold in London for the year and adopt this as the rate for all Crown Agents' transactions. The average rate owing to the rise in the price of the dollar will no doubt be in excess of 3/2 but this cannot be de- termined till the end of the year.
In statement B which shews the position of the Money Order Office apart from the sums short paid to the Treasury to cover advices to the Crown Agents it will be seen that BARRADAS left cash in hand to the extent of $11,201.49.
In the confusion caused by his flight the amount was at once appropriated as follows:-
To meet Postal Notes sold and not accounted for, ...$7,886.38
>>
>>
Money Orders sold and not accounted for,
618.07
197.04
55
"
,, Imperial Orders,............ 2,500.00
,, carry on payments for Local Orders,`.
21
It was subsequently found that a sum of £246.9.1, had not been advised to the Crown Agents and also that an error of £28 had been made by BARRADAS in a previous advice and $1,271.26 or £218.9.11 was paid to the Treasury and advised to the Crown Agents on 11th July, 1890, and therefore figures as a liability of BARRADAS.
Of the $2,500 appropriated for payments on account of Imperial Orders it was found that a balance of $325.32 was left, that is that the outstanding Imperial Orders were only $2,174.68. Owing to fluctuations in the rate of exchange it was found when finally settling up the Imperial accounts that a balance of $389.83 was available and BARRADAS has been given credit for that sum instead of for the $325.32 The deficit on the Local Order account sufficiently explains itself.
All the accounts have been subjected to a very strict and searching examination and it is not apprehended that any further discrepancies will come to light, but it will be observed in statement C that there were orders unpaid for 1887 and 1888 found and it is possible though very unlikely that there may still be some old