The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-28
MEDICATION
 FOR .NICKERS0N? :?
Bedding Town Meeting Refuses to AuiIl' orize Investigation of Accounts of
 Town Officials.
DOG LICENSE STUBS MISSING
Special To the Farmer)

Bedding. Oct. 28-The special town meeting called on behalf of investiga- tion ana reform was held yesterday, afternoon and brought out good at- tendance with the friends of Town Clerk Nickerson in full control. W. A. Lounsbury was chairman and Will liam E. Haven acted as clerk. MT. Nickerson asked to be excused from clerkship duty in order that he might speak from the floor A resolution was offered providing for the appoint ment of coEnmittee of five to enquire into all departments of the town gov ernment and to employ counsel and expert accountants. All persons who for the past 10 years have held office of tax collector, selectman, town treasur- CT and town clerk and also the near relatives of such persons were to be debarred from serving on the com n1ittee.
 Fix -Selectman Lloyd Blackman ask ed for some specific charges of wrong doing. He wanted a bill of particu- lars and not generalities. In response to this former First Selectman George $. Banks said that his board had been unable last year to get from MT. NICK erson satisfactory accounting of the receipts for dog licenses and MT. Nick erson refused to produce the license blank stubs even after the attorney general had given an opinion that the board had a right to demand them. He intimated the belief that the town had rot received the money properly it's due. He included in his statement the assertion that D. R. Warner who was appointed to look up unregistered dogs had thrown up his job because he found so many instances where parties on his delinquent list had H. censes to show.
 Mr.. Banks was followed by Stephen Sanford who thought that an investi- gation, was uncalled for. He said that it would cost the town fully $500 and was not warranted by any charges so far made. The town ac- counts were gone over annually by tie town auditors and the certification of correctness by these auditors ought to disprove any charges or suspicion or crookedness. ExSelectman James l.. Blackman spoke in the same vein. He said that the demand for an inves- tigation was evidently inspired by per sonal malice and he thought it a shame that a man like MT. Nickerson who had served his country on the battle field and had done faithful service for tre town for so many years should be the subject of such aspersions. He said the dog license account was among the matters to the correctness of which the auditors had certified.
 MT. Nickerson then took the floor and made ramDunS ana not very lucid explanation in his own defense. He said he had torn the dog license book to pieces in order to send sup ply of blanks to Georgetown for the convenience of dog owners of that sec tion. Consequently, he said, the stubs were not in unbroken continuous or der. He further said that confusion arose from licenses being made out in the names of members of the family of many owners who were not the ac- tual owners of the dogs. He said the amount received and turned over this year was larger than in any previous year and was a full and correct ac- counting.
 Attorney Samuel B. Shaw also de- precated the idea of an investigat tion. He said that the committee would probe to find some wrong doing and the effect would be to pass the discred- it on the town whether there were any