Council was that they entertained no moral doubt that Mr. Gunthorpe had been guilty of a fraudulent misappropriation of public money.
and in the absence of the Minutes of evidence taken by the Council,
of knowing all
and without the means
the Circumstances which may have been brought under the investigation of the Authorities on the subject, the point to which
would chiefly draw attention, and
which appears to us on reference to the Accounts for the
Year 1839
to be a very important one for Consideration, - is, whether Mr. Gunthorpe omitted to exclude these fees in his Accounts as Collector, and allowed the monthly Returns to be prepared and sent to the Government - without containing an entry of these fees, in order that he might facilitate and conceal the appropriation of them to his own use; or whether it was that they having been so omitted in the Monthly
Accounts
309
Accounts and Returns by his predecessor,
Mr. Gunthorpe may not have followed the system which he found in operation, and which had not been called in question by the Auditor, believing that Mr. Newman had these fees under his separate control, and that Mr. Newman was justified in directing him to pay them over to himself.
But, from the observations
was
in Mr. Gunthorpe's Memorial as to the irregular manner in which on his return to the Colony in September 1839 he found the Books kept by Mr. Newman, there is reason to believe that Mr. Gunthorpe must have had doubts as to the propriety of the alleged directions from Mr. Newman, which ought to have induced him to have brought the matter to the notice of Government for directions on the subject.
As regards the absence of receipts from Mr. Newman, Mr. Gunthorpe states that during the entire period of his Service