The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE PUBLISHED VERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, AND Saturday Morning. Thursday, Jane 4, 1891. ANOTHER BLOT.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 616, 4 June 1891, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE PUBLISHED VERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, AND Saturday Morning.

Thursday, Jane 4, 1891. ANOTHER BLOT.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’a, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

The more that comes out concerning the Bourke defalcations the more shameful the whole affair appears. John Bourke is dead, but the indignation of the swindled ratepayers is not likely to be fully spent on that accountThe revelations made at the last meeting of the Harbor Board throw a strange light upon the affair. It is not our intention here to discuss the pro. priety of the “ negotiations ” conducted by the Finance Committee in the hope of getting a restitution of the money. The embezzler was beyond the reach of this world’s justice, and the members of the Committee were anxious that the ratepayers should be saved from having to bear a large deficiency. In their desire to conserve the interest of the ratepayers the members may have held out hopes on the one side that were not likely to be fulfilled. But if they had offered to make such conditions as the one mentioned by Mr Bright they, too, would have been guilty of flagrant dishonesty. It almost takes one’s breath away to learn that such a proposition could have been seriously made to a body of representative men. To offer a certain sum on condition that it would be declared the books were all right when they were not can only be considered as a shameful insult. The telegrams that were made public explain away many things that were mysterious to us at the time. “ If the members silent, money forthcoming. See Hfuir.” “ Deficiency will be paid, but matter must be hept from Press. See Hluir immediately." Mr Bourke appears to have forgotten that Mr Muir has not got a monopoly of the Press of the district. If he had, we do not suppose that he would do what it appears to have been taken for granted he would. That, however, does not necessarily affect the position, excepting to prove that after finessing with the Board, Mr Bourke follows it up by the most shabby attempt to lay the blame on the Board. The conditions being such as have leaked out, Mr Bourke ought to have been ashamed to again put pen to paper on the matter. The talk of restitution does not seem to have been considered from any moral motives, but merely, while the deficiency was considered a small one, that it would be worth that amount to get the affair hushed up. The matter has now grown into such a scandal, that a sense of public duty must remove the ordinary restraints on a journalist when dealing with such a painful subject. The circumstances are such that the severest terms that could be employed might be amply justified. A slur has also been cast upon the Press, not of Gisborne alone, but of the colony. Now, we might ask, is it true that everything connected with these defalcations has been concealed from the late John Bourke’s mother ? It is not too much, from what is known of the lady, to suppose that if she knew the circumstances, her influence would be exerted in the way of securing restitution to the ratepayers ? If Mr Bourke had come forward and said that the deficiency was too large to make good, we might have found some excuse in the matter. But when it is made to appear that the money to be given was only to be in the form of hush-money, it is enough to make one’s blood boil with indignation. The fact that the Press did its duty in the matter is really the only excuse that is offered for the non-restitution of any portion of the embezzled funds. We do not think there is much in the hope of getting restitution by legal process, but the indignation of a community that has been so treated, will surely be a moral punishment where needed.