obey the instructions of your superior officer Mr. Silva to see that the
a
were advised
amounts paid into the Treasury corresponded with the amounts of which the Crown Agents and that in consequence thereof frauds on
large
scale took place. (h). That in breach of your duty as Audit Clerk you passed as correct a balance sheet prepared by the Superintendent of the Money Order Office in April 1889, and purporting
quite
diverse
to show that when all sums due by the Australian Colonies had been collected, the accounts of the said Superintendent would be in order, when as a matter of fact you failed to check some of the items of the said balance sheet and the whole balance sheet was misleading and deceptive.
(i). That the examinations, which it was your duty to make as Audit Clerk, were generally made much in arrear, viz.: from very much two to four months after the transactions had taken place to which the accounts examined referred.
Mr. Freire informs the Council that his statement of defence, in answer to the above charges, is set out in his letter to the Acting Secretary of the 30th June last.
The following witnesses were then called to substantiate the charges referred to above, viz.: Mr. A. X. Travers, Assistant Postmaster General at present Acting Postmaster General, Mr. S. Nicolle, Local Auditor, and Mr. I. M. Silva, Reference Clerk, Colonial Secretary's Office.
Mr. Rocha, Accountant of the General Post Office, was called as a witness by Mr. Freire.
In answer to charges (a) and (d) Mr. Freire alleged that