The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-02-02
WHO OWES
THE MONEY
Perplexing Mixup in Town Ac-
counts Between Former Town
Officers - Hill Had Settled,
But Paid too Much

l 66QUluS, 4 eps
The game of see saw which began
| more than year ago between ex-Tax
Collector E. I. Gorfam and Town
| Treasurer w. H. Hill as to which of
| the two was responsible for short
| age of $1,319 in tax payments was
thought to have reached it's final chap
| ter last May when Treasurer Hill
| turned over to the town $1,141, thereby
| admitting his responsibility for at
| least this part of the missing funds.
Previous to this episode, which fol-
| lowed the discovery by Mr.. Gorham
of two cancelled checks that he had
| given Mr.. Hill and which the latter
| had collected the former collector ap-
| peared to be the delinquent. When he
produced the cancelled checks for ST.
| 141 and Mr.. Hill made them good the
latter figured as the dip in the see
| ward bearing halo Of apparent vim
dication.
subsequently Expert Accountant
Soule went over everybody's books
and made an exhaustive report. In his
presentation of It before the October
summary which was published few
weeks since he failed to emphasize his
find ngs regarding this vitality impor-
tant matter of the $1,141 SO that eth
er the selectmen or the general pub
lie really sensed the situation. Con-
sequently the selectmen were greatly
surprised, not to say flabbergasted,
when they received recently from Mr..
Hill a letter politely requesting that
the town return to him the 81 .1A1 for the
reason, as he explained, that accord
ing to Accountant Soule's verdict he
was not properly chargable with this
amount He further said that he was
- oy-o6 RI -
finding that apart from this matter
he owed the town a total of STAG from
various shortages. With this deduct
ed from the 81 141 there remained due
him a balance of $685. which he would
be pleased to accept in settlement of
the account.
At first the seIectmen were dispos-
ed to regard the treasurer's claim rs
the throwing of large fantastic bluff
or as an erroneous conclusion based
on a misund of the figures.
The case seemed very simple one.
To begin with there had existed the
shortage of $1.319 on the taxes collect
ed by Mr. Gorham during his three
years Of off ce. At first It seemed to
be UP to him to make good this short
age as his books did not contain the
credits for it from the treasurer. Then
Mr. Gorhap1 produced the two cancell-
ed checks for 81 al bearing Mr.. Hills
that much of the shortage. Mr.. Hill
proceeded to make good the checks
and this was the end of it from SUI
perficial point of view.
However, Mr., Fl lis reference to
the Soule report as his authority for
his recent claim caused the select
men to re-exanine the report with
more keenly scrutnizing eye. To
their surprise they discovered thereby
that the treasurer's position had SUBJ
stantial basis of fact. 1t is true that
Mr.. Hills books contained no entries
giving Mr.. Gorham credits for the
checks as checks. Nor were there any
credits for the precise sums represent
ed by the checks. Mr.. Soule went
into all the circumstances and condi-
tons analytically, however, and reach
ed the conclusion that the checks We're
in point of fact Included in two later
entries which are among the amounts
credited to Mr.. Gorham. If such is
the case Mr.. Gorham and not Mr..
Hill owed the money and the latter
is entitled to return Of part Of the
sum he turned over to the town last
May.
In his review of the circumstances
pertaining to the checks Mr.. Soule
notes that when the first one was CIV
en- dated Nov. "a. 1906, the amount be-
ing s9?S.54 Mr.. Gorfam owed the town
s2092.20 From that date to Dec. 5
he collected s151.14, making a total
of So 1880 Mr.. Sou1e goes on to say.
"On Dec. 3. 1906, entries on the col
iector's books of paynent to the trea-
surer amount to s1.h25S7. Therefore it
would appear that a payment of 1885,
81 fanount OF check on Nov. % and
another payment Of S1525.S7 on Dec.
would be improbable ard since the
check shows that it was deposited by