Fiji.

Over £1100 Taken From

Treasury “Safes.”

Unfortunate Happenings for Fiji.

From Our Own Correspondent.

SUVA, April 20.

THERE have been unfortunate hap penings in the Treasury at Suva.

The sum of £705 was stolen from the Treasury safe during the course of a week-end. The officer in charge of the safe states that he locked the safe before leaving the office on the Satur day, and that when he came back to open up on the Monday morning he found the safe already open, and £705 in notes missing.

The theft was a daring one, since a sentry is posted each evening outside the Treasury offices, and there is some one on guard over the week-end.

Below the Treasury are the vaults containing £88,000 in gold.

The theft follows on one of £400 odd from the District Treasury at Ba, and in these days of enforced economy have given rise to much criticism on

the beach. It has even been suggested that an additional sub-head should be provided in the Government estimates of expenditure to read “Provision for Losses from Treasuries.”

It is difficult to understand why, in these days of modern banking facilities, it is necessary to keep a large sum in notes in the Treasury safe. One would think that ordinary prudence would dictate the necessity of reducing the amount of cash held on hand by the Treasury cashier to perhaps £100. It is rumoured on the beach that the figure actually held on hand was round about twenty times that figure.

Every business house in Suva sends practically all the cash in its till to the Bank of New South Wales or to the Bank of New Zealand each day by 3 p.m. There seems no earthly reason why the Treasury should not follow a similar practice, since practically all payments from the Treasury are made by cheques, which are cashed by the individual officers concerned at either bank.

No doubt all these matters will be overhauled by the Colonial Treasurer, with whom considerable sympathy has been expressed.