Albuquerque evening citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1905-1907, 1907-07-17

The Citizen today published the
report of Charles V. Stafford, referee
in the suit brought by II. .. Eursum
for an accounting of disputed ac-
counts in connection with his super
fntendency of the territorial peniten-
tiary at Santa Fe.
This report has already been sent
= into court in the third judicial dis
trlct and Will be reviewed by Judge
Frank w. Parker in the hearing of
the suit
1t is a plain, unbiased, truthful ac-
counting for the monies handled by
H. o. Bursum during the time he was
in charge of the prison and it shows
that large number of errors, inten-
tional or otherwise, were made by
the so-called expert employed by the
late governor, H. ]. Hagerman, when
he reported that Bursum was sh )rt
in his accounts.
The Citizen does not consider that
this report and the testimony of H.
Q. Bursum attached, needs further
comment
Those who desire to know the truth
about the II. o. Bursum case should
read this report carefully.
Those who do not, would naturally
not be interested at all events.
That the report vindicates II. o.
Bursum is what his friends expected
and his enemies feared.
1t is as follows. Read it:
REPORT OF REFEREE.
Santa Fe, n. NJ, July ~, 1907.
Hon. Frank W. Parker,
Associate Justice of the Supreme
Court of the Territory of New
Mexico, and Judge of the Third
Judicial District thereof.
Sir
In compliance with your order
naming me as referee, and as such
referee, directing that | investigate
now pending in your court, in which
Holm .. Bursum is the plaintiff and
the Territory of New Mexico is the
defendant and in which suit the
plaintiff prays for an accounting as
between the Territory of New Mex
leo and himself, concerning moneys
that came to his hands, during the
time he was superintendent of the
New Mexico penitentiary, commence
ing May 5th, 1899, and terminating
April II, 1906, 1 would RESPECTFULLY
submit the result of my examination.
My report, which is herewith sub
mitted, shows in detail all of the
debts and credits of all transactions,
but the result is so entirely different
from a report made by the Colorado
Title and Trust company, dated
August 80, 1906, that l do not feel
that in justice TO myself, that 1 can
submit this report without calling
your honors attention to the many
manifest errors in the former report
Concerning the books of account,
this former report charged that Yald-
able records nad been destroyed Or
were not ava liable, and on the oth-I
hand | found all books of original
entry and from these the financial
transactions of the penitentiary un-
der the superintendency of II. o.
Bursum can be readily traced. The
only record missing and which in no
sense was book of original entry,
is an old individual ledger, used In
keeping accounts of persons buying
material from the penitentiary, and
the balances from which on all sup
posed live accounts, were transacte1 /
to a new ledger.
The absence of this book was not
material, as having the books of ORR
ginal entry, the journal and impress
sion books (inVOice and Voucher), al
though the work consumed consid-
cradle time, 1t has been easily repro
duced. The rewritten cash book
mentioned i'm the report referred TO
was not copied from any cash book
kept by the penitentary. \ cash
book was never kept, simply jour
nal in which all cash transactions
We're entered as we'll as other items.
This so-called rewritten cash book" /
made up a few weeks before the re-
tirement of II. o. Bursum as superin-
tendent, was an attempted statement
as To the cash transactions Of the
penitentiary for the period of his SER
vice. This statement was made for
the information of the board Of COM
missioners was in no sense a book
of original entry and would have had
no value whatever except for ref
erence, even If 1t had been correctly