643
6. The defalcations which have been committed since the beginning of 1891 stand in a different category. Owing to the appointment of Treasurer being made a separate and substantive post in January 1891, the Treasury has always been in charge of an Officer whose whole time has been available for the duties of the Office, and the Treasury staff has been strengthened by the addition of one Clerk at the beginning of 1891 and a second subsequently.
Further, I am informed that the exact amounts misappropriated during the tenure of each of the two officers, Mr. Mitchell-Jones and Mr. Gray, who have been in charge since the 1st of January 1891 can be ascertained. It is also on record that the local Auditor urged upon these officers the necessity of balancing certain books, and that if his suggestions had been complied with Alves' previous defalcations would have been discovered and his subsequent misappropriations prevented. There are therefore circumstances which do not obtain in the cases of Mr. Lister and Mr. Wodehouse, for enforcing the pecuniary responsibility of Mr. Mitchell-Jones and Mr. Gray.
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