The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-12-07

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| sion of all vouchers for which credits
were allowed him and Immediately de-
| stroyed them. When the committee of ex-
| perts investigated the tressurer's accounts
| and reported shortage, amounting to
over $50 600, these vouchers. which were
the basis OF the statements made, were not
at hand and through no fault on tie part
OF General Hill, for they had been taken mp
by the county commissioners and de-
| siroyed. Yet the experts. assuming TO
be better able, from stubs of receipt books
and warrant books and TAX lists. without
| any explanations from persons conversant
| with the transactions. TO state the man
truly than were Messrs. Maddocks,
! O'f3rien, saar, Van Buren,, Abrams. Law
ton, Perrigo and other wel-known citizens
| who al different times had served as county
commissioners. with all light 10 be Obtained
| from the auditors books, the vouchers and
| the explanation of the parties interested
| in the transactions, claimed to have dis
| covered and brought to light errors and
| populations. extending during the entire
term of service, amounting to the large
SUM mentioned. | say unheslta,ingly that
the charge is unfounded in fact. and not
| supported by a particle OF Legal evidence, or
!
would accept or allow to influence him in
| any transaction whatever.
"The gIaring absur lily of the accusation
IL very well shown by a fact which may be
said has not illustrated, that it is claimed
By the experts. that during a single year.
during the earlier part OF the time, when
the entire cash income OF the county was
less than SIT COO the treasurer, through
errors, was allowed over-credits in his
statement with the county commissioners.
by which he was enabled TO, and did alb
serb and appropriate TO his own us, over
$4,000. This. everyo one will say. could not
possibly have occurre without the con-
nivance of the auditor aud the county
missioners. Another way in which
the accusations made by The experts is
conciasively shown, is this: The experts
arrived At their conclusions by ransacking
the treasurer's office to find error, and
whenever they found by comparing of
stubs with the tax list, an instance in
which a receipt had been given for tax
and the item not checked in the tax roll to
indicate, payment or in other apparent
error. they charged Hall with the item
without in any instance giving him credit
for subsequent correction.
sin the same way Hills successors or
any business man who receives and dis
burses money can be made TO appear as a
swIndier. Tue truth is that i'm the rush
incident TO the collection OF taxes, for q
considerable time preceding the closing of
the books In the ireasurer's office each
year mistakes frequently occur by failure
10 check the payments on the tax rolls.
The county cannot De the loser by such
errors, frou the fact that the way the
books are kept the treasurer is not debited
merely with the moneys his books show to
have been paid hini-he is debitei with the
total amount of the tax roll, and
when he returns the deliquent list he
receives credit for that in the auditors
books; the same amount is at once charged
against the sheriff, who then takes The tax
roll for the collection Of delinquent taxes.
Whenever the sheriff discovers that tax
has been paid, for which the treasurer re-
ceived credit as ii it were delinquent tax
the matter could be at once adjusted in
this way: The treasurer could receipt TO
the sheriff for the amount. and upon this
receipt the auditor could charge the treas
urer and credit the sheriff, so that the mat
ter could then appear on the auditors
books. exactly the same. so far as the
treasurer's account is concerned, as il
would if the error had not occurred.
.'in this case it was proven by the testi-
mony of citizens as reputable as any we
have, that such corrections were made,
amounting to many thousands of dollars,
and this testimony was not contradcted,
except by one OF the experts, who at
tempted to do so, but who, upon his cross
examination was forced TO admit that he
had made no comparison of his list of
errors with either the delinquent in the
sheriff's hands, or with the auditors books,
and thereby convicted himself of making
false statement.
THAT the experts were unacquainted
with the true state of the treasurer's &C.
counts is shown by the fact that in each of
the three suits the TO al amount charged to
have been received by the treasurer during
his term of office, is many thousands OF
dollars less than what he actually did re-
ceive, and less than the amount shown by
undispuied evidence 10 have been accounted
for by him.
"Ihe several complaints drawn by the
county attorney fixed the amount of his re-
ceipts at something near $500 900 lees than
the aggregate amount of money that actu-
ally passed through his hands during the
six years covered.
'iR view of these indisputable facts it
may be true as stated by the gentleman
whose interview has been published, that
he was fast friend of General Hills in his
life time, as ne now processes to have been,
and have no doabt that it is equally trus
that the man. whose death is now mourned
by thousands as we'll as by the orphans
who are so suddenly deprived OF their last
surviving parent, often had occasion to
utter the prayer, o Lord. save me from
my friends"
To Attend Captain HIPS Funeral.