Copy of a tatement referring
-
to Syp Pieces sent li London.
Suchsure Bin Mr Encloure
Davies letter of 19 November, 1857.
HONGKONG, 19th November, 1867. SIR,-1.-In compliance with the instruc- tions contained in your letter of the 12th just, I now submit my defence against the accusation brought by Mr. Kinder. I make that defence in the belief that I am at liberty to tell the truth, whether it is in favour of the Head of y Department or not.
2. As I cannot do justice to myself without bringing serious accusations against Mr.Kinder, and as I know that I am not justified in doing this unless I produce reliable proofs, I enclose three statutory declarations made before a Jus- tice of the Peace, to which I shall refer in the proper places.
3--I am obliged first to trouble His Excel- leney with a brief statement of the manner in which Pyx Pieces are entered on the Records of the Mint, which is as follows.
4.--The Master takes Pyx Pieces from the Coining Department as often as be thinks ne- cessary, aud I give the Coining Department receipts for whatever the master has taken, but as I have not received the same for which I thus sign receipta, I instantly charge those sums against the Government as Pyx Pieces issued,
5.--The items thus entered at varions times during the month grow by the end of the month into a gross total of the "Pyx Pieces issued during the month.”
6.I have a very reason to believe when I en- ter these items that the master will, at the end of the month, reduce the total by returning into the Bullion office a large portion of the Pyx Pieces issned, but I do not know what that portion will be.
7. At the end of the month if the master does not send for me, the gross total of Pyx Pieces issued remains charged against the Go-
vernment.
8. But the master usually sends for me, and delivers to me a portion of the Pyx Pieces he has taken from the Coining Department, and which I immediately enter in favour of the Go- vernment as "Pyx Pieces returned."
9. The difference between Pyx Pieces issued and Pyx Pieces returned thus remains charged against the Government, and is the net amount of Pyx Pieces charged by the master as having been expended.
10.It is in this way that the amounts of Pyx Pieces expended, which Mr. Kinder fancies are not entered, appear in the Books. Any! system of omitting the entries of" Pys Pieces issued," or of anticipating the entries of "Pyx Picces returned," besides being wrong in prin- ciple, would produce confusion and error, be- cause the stock of Bullion in the Bullion Office would never agree with the balances on the Books.
11.--The master renders his own account of: what he will return, and I accept whatever be chooses to give me.
12. If the master makes any error, and either by neglecting the charge some pieces he had expended, or by charging more that he had ex- ¦ pended, returns to me either more or less than he should have done, I have no means of dis- covering that error. I can only enter in favour of the Government the exact sam which Mr. Kinder returns to me, that done, my duty has been accomplished.
B-Some time previous to the month of March, in the present year, Mr. Kinder did ex- pend less Pyx Pieces than he charged against the Government. He alone could rectify that error, and he did so in the month of March. In the Collector's account for that month, His Excellency will find a sum of $10.47 entered in favour of the Government as Pyx Pieces re- turned, instead of a charge against the Govern- ment for "Pyx Pieces expended."
14. In the month of May, 1867, Mr. Kinder charged against the Government less Pyx Pieces than he actually expended, and hence the error in question.
15.-About the 28th of May Mr. Kinder sent
for me to his office, and told me he wished to i
Be Smith,
157
settle the Pyx Pieces. He said he had given most of them to his boy to be spent for his, Mr. Kinders', private purposes, and in lieu of these he gave me a post dated cheque for $103.20, which he requested me not to cash till some time in the month of June, as he did not want to overdraw his account. To the best of my recollection the cheque was dated June lat or June 2nd. Mr. Kinder also gave me all the Pyx Pieces he had left, namely $25.00. He did not give me any account or memorandum of any kiud, and I do not recollect giving him any re- ceipt. I calculated the weight of the sum covered by the cheque; weighed the $25.00 in the scales, and the total weight is entered in favour of the Government in the Stock Ledger, under date 28th of May.
16.-I have not the slightest doubt that Mr. Kinder has expended on account of Pyx Pieces $16.94 more than he had charged up to the end of October, and I have never expressed any such doubt.
17-I made a return to Mr. Kinder on the 7th Instant, a copy of which is enclosed, shew- ing that the total charge against the Govern- ment for Pyx Pieces expended from April to October is oz.30.59. Mr. Kinder says he has expended oz.45.24, and the difference, oz.14.66, is equivalent to about $16.94.
18-This difference, oz.14.66, had not been charged by me against the Government at the end of October, because Mr. Kinder had not charged it against me.
19.-I have no power to expend Bullion ou account of the Government, except upon the authority of Mr. Kinder. I have repeatedly asked Mr. Kinder if he will give me such. authority to pay this 14.66 on account of Pyx Pieces. He has given me authority to pay oz.8.66 of the amount, and I have paid it. He refuses to authorise me to pay the remaining six ounces, which is in effect the same as order- ing me not to pay it out of Government Bal- lion, and has ordered me to pay it out of my own pocket.
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20-If I had paid this six ounces out of my own pocket, the matter would have stood thus; Mr. Kinder would have expended forty-five ounces and twenty-four parts on account of the Government, the Mint books would shew that the Government had only paid for thirty-nine ounces and twenty-four parts of this, and the rest would have been paid for by a private in- ! dividual.
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21. What I declined to do was to constitute myself that Quixotic private individual. I re i spectfully submit that Mr. Kinder has no power to call upon me to pay out of my private means for anything he expends on account of the Go- vernment, that if he does su call upon me I am justified in dechning, and that a proper regard for my private interests compels me to avoid establishing such a dangerous precedent.
22.--My refusal to pay out of my own pocket was not intended to be in any way dis- respectful towards Mr. Kinder, and he does not say that it was 80.
23.-I positively and emphatically deny ever! having refused, as Superintendent of the Bullion office, to pay Mr. Kinder out of Govern- ment funds any sum which he has ever de- manded out of those funds.
24. In reply to the first charge I therefors say, 1st. That no balance is due, and no claim exists against me as a private individual.-2nd, that I have not refused as uperintendent of the Bullion office to refund anything, or to pay anything to Mr. Kinder which Mr. Kinder bas chosen to demand.
3rd. That Mr. Kinder has repeatedly refused to demand from me as an Officer the balance due to him for the Pyx Pieces he has expended.
25.-With reference to the first part of the second charge, which is a charge of insubordina tion, I find that Mr. Kinder supports that ac- cusation in the 2nd paragraph of his letter. No. 88, of November 9th, a copy of which you en close, by asserting that I became insubordinate,
The bonorable
Cecil C. Smith,
Colonial Secre
Acting
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