New-York tribune., 1881-12-25
THE NEWARK EMBEzzLEMENTS.

WHAT THE EXPERT HAS NOW DISCOVERED'
THE OPERATIONS or The CLERK, W. A. HALL-How
HE STOLE ARREARS OF TANEs-PALMER ;
FORMER GOOD REPUTATION.
II has been suspected that the operations of Audi
tor Palmer and Clerk Hall. of Newark, extended to
the arrears of taxes These taxes, on real estate are
advertised year after they become due Ihey ar,
payable in the Office of the Controller, haYngp passed
from the jurisdiction of the Receiver OF Iaxes'
William A. Hall as chief clerk OF the C0ntroiIer
office had opportnnities to receive these taxes and
put the money in his pocket without
making au entry of payments in the cash. iesier-
day afternoon the expert began to investigate the
accounts of arrears and taxes for the year loeO.
r he fortieth name reached in the First Ward was
that Of Caleb r. GaTabrant, the amount beng
&75 ~ The name and amounts were entered upon
the record book, but no corresponding entry had
been made by Hall in he cash. Other names were
quickly reached that showed similar embezzleInents
When the expert had arrived at the 274th name he
co,n,ared the total Of the amount found TO be en-
hezzled. and it was 81 l75 IS. The investigation
was then stopped for the night. There are over
1000 names in the list Of arrears Of taxes for 1850
and it ia app-chended that when the list is gone
through il will b. found that the cmbczZlenent III
this department alone viii amount to many thods-
With an honest Auditor of Accounts these rob
berries could nos have occurred without detectloh
Three years ago President David Young, OF the
Common Council, asked Palmer ii he had suuiclent
checks upon William l. Hall, the chief clerk OF the
Controllers Office. Palmer at that time madc or
pretended TO make an examination OF Hals ac-
counts and this extended over long period OF time
One day he told President Young that he had lOuhd
everything correct in Halls accounts, - .
Another fact has been disclosed. he ConiroutIS
Office il credited in the cash of the Treasurer with
$500 which i used in the Controllers Once Tor
change and incidental expenses Hall received trom
the Treasurer the sum Of $270 on this account CIV
ing check with the name OF Controller baher
signed by Hall. The Controller says ho never all-
thoriz.d the drawing Of this check. and that the
money was never used in the Office.
Palmer has not made his promised statement, ana
he will be- allowed to rest until next Tuesday when
how'll De in condition to tell connected story. IL
has now been ascertuncd that Palmer anG uail
were together in "A restaurant on Tues ay nlgut,and
il Is argued from this that Hail learned from Palmer
that h. intended TO confess and then maze up MS
mind to quit the city. As yet no trace has been
found OF the missing clerk.
The President of the Chatham Bank, when asked
Yesterday if j. 4. Palmer had once dcfrauded the
bank of scve.1l thousand dollars rs charged in an
anonymous letter addressed to Mayor Fredler, re-
fused To make any reply. When IT was suggested
what the natural inference would be, nOdeniai being
made that the charge was trne, ho smiled ana sald
be- would not point out any way by which the iacts
Of the case could be obtained
The c,tccm IN which Palmer was held IS shown in
the fact that short time ago the project OF rcylE-
ing the First Ma iOnal Bank was broached This Is
the bank that was robbed OF nearly hall million
by its cashier, James \. Hedden A responsible
toned anu his name, il stated received with
general favor BY those present Pending iurther
action the cmbelIiymcnt occurred. Palmer was
offered one or two other responsible positions dur
mg his incuubcncF of office. and these oilers were
prompted by tho confidence with which he was re-
gardeI. About SIX months ago a paragraph was
printed in iHE TRIBUNE which indirectly reflected
upon the Auditors Office. One OF
Iamcrs friends said yesterday that the para
graph appeared 20 distress and annoy the Auditor
cN,raiugiy 40 tho time, and that hc acted as If he
thought ms official acts ought to be REGARDED a'
abol e suspicion. Several times, " hen some crIti-
ci-Hl %. him had appeared in the local press he has
spoken oI re~mlng. his friends accounted Tor MS
apparent prosperity on the theory that ne Lad been
fortunate in lcg Juu9ty stOc. ana real estate op-
cra'.1ps. 4 week PrtIIOu, 10 PalmcIs confession
prominent Newark official visited the CITY Treas
urrr m las home and asked hlm, IN view Ot the in
yc-tig.iion by the expert, II everything was All
right The Treasurer gave him the emphatic as-
sur.uCc that there was nothing wrong and mat De
could rest easy