The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-11-04

asked for it. and it is also his due to say that his character for integrity is of the highest and. that no one can say that through him the town has ever lost cent. All must admit, however, that the conditions described are loose" not to say irregular. Some. at least. If the subscribers to the recent petition had these condi- tions in mind when they signed the paper.
 There has also been a deplorable de- gree of looseness and disregard or statute requirements on the part or the selectmen in failing to exact bonds from officials who handle town funds This fact was emphasized when Tax Collector Gorham in 1905 refused in September when the selectmen were making up their annual report to ac- count for the S3,000 or. s4,OO0 of taxes he had collected, persisting in his re- fusaI and defiance of the board un- til Oct. 1. An incident of the case was the discovery that he had given no bond The town meeting discussed the affair and passed a vote instructing the se- lectmen to be more careful in the fu- ture. Despite this First Selectman Banks discovered on taking office last fall that neither Treasurer Hill nor Town Clerk Nickerson had been under bonds the preceding years and he pro ceeded to "chase them up" until they furnished bonds for the rest of their terms.
  men, which was mostly compiled and edited by Selectman w. E. Hagen, has been criticized as being about the most unsatisfactory production of its kind
 put forth in years. For one tning IL is without the usual summary or bal ance sheet showing the towns finan- cial condition. A former member or
 the town school board sent in a Dill
 for attending three meetings Of the board at a $1 per, giving the dates. Tn ha nrf
 vices is given as that of cleaning the Ridge school house. A resolution pass ed at one of the special town meetings
 appears in the report in inaccurate and misleading form. But what LOOKS like the biggest blunder appears in the treasurer's section of the report Here there is entered among the recelpts s271.45 from the town clerk for dog H. censes. Another entry is SS9-34 for dog money returned by the State Now as the money returned by the State Represents money first paid 1t oy the town and as there appears in the re-
 port no offsetting debit entry relat- I ing to this money the same money, | to the extent of $1S9.34, is counted in twice How books can be made to
 balance under such circumstances IS | a mystery
 In the Farmer of Oct. 21, core spondent writing over the signature wv attempts correction Of previ- ousiy published statement regardlng the making by the Town Treasurer or
 A note to Miss Abbie Sanford for S1O0 when the amount should have been ! $500. As "W'' befogged rather than H. lumined the subject and appeared 10 confirm rather than deny the former
 statement on the incident, the writer will make it clear wherein this form CT statement was wrong. Its error consisted in the assertion that the ex- cess $10O represented a bond which hao already been paid. whereas 1t repre- l fnr- rar1
 This fact made loss to the town from the Treasurer's error less proDaDie than would have been the case had the new $100 obligation meant double
 payment. but it did furnish chance | for dispute and complications. In say ing that the town treasurer discover ed the mistake "W' is wrong. Miss Sanford herself discovered 1t and re- ported to\ Charles Sanford, now hrst selectman, who had some difficulty in convincing Treasurer Hill that there
 was a mistake. And while on the suo- | feet of town bonds and mistakes the following paragraph from the select | mems rer}ort of 1899 is interesting: | towing to an error existing since 1898 the reports have shown the lamount of our interest bearing bonds l to be S1 900 less than it should De
 Turn over now to the bright side OF lwhereir1 appear the selectmen as heroes in the limelight ct a real ex- ioneration With joy the writer bears witness to their triumphant vindfca- ton and with such degree of contri- ton as befits the situation admlts thSt he unintentionally did them wrong. It came about in this way: Some weeks since while searching the Land records that are kept in the safe Yin the selectmen's office he came upon a volume marked "Towa Ledger ana cautiously examined it. It was about one third written through and the last entries have the date of 1904 Hence the inferance that the selectmen ceas- | ed keeping a ledger with the year
 mentioned a natural inference but a mistaken one. The board had merely abandoned the old volume and com mitted the extravaganza of new one. That there had been no break In the community of ledger keeping was fully set forth at Wednesdays town meet ing. and in order that mistaken ideas on the subject might not persist, MT Hagen proudly brought in the new volume and displayed it as an exhibit I Of course a ledger is merely con venience and the keeping or non keep ing of one a minor matter in com harrison with the weightier issues the meeting was called to consider. Tnere was no ledger-keeping until it was ordered by a town meeting Tn 1oSS anu that the innovation has been mann tained is the real occasion for surprlse as 1t is not uncommon for selectmen to wholly ignor directions voted by
 town meetings.