No. 62

I transmit to you the copies of a despatch from Sir H. Ward, late
Governor of Ceylon, and of it's enclosures reporting the discovery of
defalcations in the Department of the Surveyor

General of that Island to
the amount of £755-1-6 1/2, and of a robbery of the sum of £342-6-7,
belonging to that Department, on the 1st of July last.

It is unnecessary to enter into a detailed statement of the mode in
which the frauds involved in the defalcations were committed, inasmuch
as all the circumstances relative to this part of the subject and to the
manner in which those frauds were ultimately detected exposed and
punished will be found set forth with great clearness in Sir H. Ward's
despatch.

The defalcations in question, however, have been clearly traced to
the fraudulent practices of a Clerk in the Department of the Surveyor
General, named Bartholomensy to whom the financial transactions

of the
Department were entrusted; and it appears that the money misappropriated
by him was abstracted from the money advanced on Impost from time to time
by the Colonial Treasurer to the Surveyor General; that the sums so
abstracted were fraudulently charged by Mr Bartholomensy in the
Departmental accounts to the Surveyor General; that they figured in the
balance of the statements of accounts sent quarterly to the Colonial
Treasury and Audit Office, with the signature attached thereto either of
the Surveyor General, or (in his absence) of some officer acting on his
behalf; and that the settlement which was required to be annually made
with the Treasury in respect to the advance account was effected by
paying into the Treasury the balance appearing

to be due on that
account, out of advances made by the Treasurer for the ensuing year.

The malpractices commenced in 1856 and were continued until
discovered by Captain Sim, the present Surveyor General in November
1859. During that period the Department of the Surveyor General had
been under the Superintendence of Captain Gosset from October 1856 to
the 26th of April 1858, of Mr Evatt from the 27th of April
1858 to the 12th of March 1859, and of
Captain Sim from the 12th of March to November 1859.
But as it appears from the Minutes of the Executive Council that Mr
Evatt merely officiated temporarily on the responsibility of Captain
Gosset, the responsibility of Captain Gosset must be taken to extend
from October 1856 to the 12th of March 1859. The

amount of
deficiency during that time was £598-0-4.

You will be good enough to furnish Captain Gosset, at present the
Colonial Treasurer of British Columbia, with copies of this despatch and
of it's enclosures, and instruct him to furnish me through you with some
explanation in regard to the omission on his part to verify the balances
of the accounts of his Department sent quarterly to the Colonial Treasury
and Audit Office with his signature attached thereto, and to shew cause
why he should not be considered responsible for the amount of the
defalcations that occurred during the period he held the office of
Surveyor General, which period, for the reasons stated, must be
considered

as extending from October 1856 to 12th of March 1859.