On the 10th instant, I should have done earlier has not my absence at Canton in search of the perpetrators, from which I only returned yesterday, prevented me.
On the afternoon of the 9th instant when the office was closed for the day, there was in the iron Chest belonging to the office, according to a statement furnished to me by the office Shroff, the sum of $2011.91, being the accumulation of rents of the public Markets for the present month, and of License fees, for a detailed statement of which I beg to annex. This amount had been collected between the 5th and the 9th instant inclusive, and in accordance with previous custom, and in pursuance of the directions of the Market Ordinance, that portion of the market rents amounting to $1819.09 has been paid into the Colonial Treasury the following day.
The iron chest in which all public monies collected by this department are deposited pending their transmission to the Colonial Treasury is kept within my office at the Court House, and the two Office Coolies allowed by Government sleep in the Office for the protection of the place.
About 10:30 on the morning of the 10th instant, the Office Shroff, having occasion to open the chest,