that the Commission would have been more just in making bare note of this evidence than in passing it over without comment, and adverting only that I could have discovered the frauds by the exercise of some vigilance.
It must be remembered finally22. in this connection that every month was submitted to the Audit Office the Collector's account showing the whole of the Treasury receipts and disbursements, and that there were accounts audited and were invariably signed "Examined & found correct" together with the date of examination.
Considering therefore that in those days the Treasurer was for the most part23 an absentee officer that his officers were tried and valued servants, that there was no cause grown for suspecting dishonesty and that there was no departmental machinery for checking frauds other than what the system in force supplied, I do not think that it is surprising that their commission escaped detection, especially when it was not the duty of the Treasurer then, as it has been since, to provide his own checks independently of the Audit.
In the absence therefore of the books and in the want of direct evidence to show in what way the frauds were committed, and in the...