View report page

25
received. The Finance Committee gave Mr. Russell some time to make good the
deficiency, but as fresh defalcations came to light, and Mr. Russell brought a
pistol into the Rate Office where some of the clerks who had made enquiries in his
Ward were waiting to be heard by the Committee, it was unanimously resolved to
recommend the Vestry to dismiss him forthwith, and this recommendation was
adopted by the Vestry on the 26th January, 1892, who left the question of
prosecution to the Guarantee Society. Mr. Riley was appointed temporarily to
carry on the collection, and to check all the Collector's returns of empties, losses,
and outstandings for the Christmas quarter, when it appeared that £27 17/- had
been received by Mr. Russell and was unaccounted for. The London Guarantee
and Accident Company, Limited, paid this amount, but did not think it advisable
to prosecute, as they had received the money from the Collector. A further sum
of .£9 4s. 3d. subsequently appeared to have been received by the Collector without
being accounted for, but of this sum £1 3s. 3d. has been paid to the Vestry by
Mr. Russell, leaving a sum of £5 1s. 0d. still owing by him.
The detection of these defalcations within three days of the false returns being
made by the Collector, proves the efficiency of the system of rate collecting and
checking which had been adopted by the Vestry at the commencement of the
Christmas quarter. Under this system the most perfect check which is I think
devisable is kept on every operation of rate collection.
The Vestry issued the following advertisement for a Rate Collector, to fill the
vacancy in the Moorfields Ward:—
"Vestry of St. Leonard, Shoreditch.—Appointment of Rate Collector.—
"Applications are invited for the above office at the commencing salary
"of £160 per annum. The officer appointed to devote the whole of his
"time to the duties, to provide an office in the ward to which he may
"be appointed, and to furnish security in approved Guarantee Society
"in the sum of £500."
*The appointment was not made within the period covered by this Report, and
will be dealt with in my report of next year.
(10) SANITARY INSPECTOR.
On the 26th January, 1892, the Vestry, on the recommendation of the General
Purposes Committee
"Resolved—That in view of the report of Mr. Cubitt Nichols and Dr. Seaton,
and in consequence of the large increase of work thrust upon the Vestry's
Sanitary Department by the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, that an
additional Sanitary Inspector be appointed, and that it be referred to the
General Purposes and Sanitary Committee, to advertise in the usual way,
and to select five candidates for submission to the Vestry."