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Hyderabad, 5th December, 1891.
The ethics of His Highness the Nizam's Public Works Department would seem to be worth studying. Within a comparatively short time we have had Walter-Cornelius' case, Nalgonda defalcations, and Work-shops' embezzlement case. These are not all. There are several more of such cases that the public have not heard of, and cf which they might have heard but for secret underhand influences bright into play to hush them up. The following is a typical one. Many months ago an accountant was, temporarily put at the head of the cash department of the P. W. Examiner's Office. Short though the time he was in charge of it, it was sufficiently long for him to make away with a pretty good sum of money. So the account showed a deficit when he handed over charge to the permanent man; and he could not satisfactorily account for it. Being pressed to explain, the accountant, to get out of the difficulty for the time being, gave the Examiner to understand that the sun was in the District office cash chest. The District Engineer's cash chest was examined and the accountant was questioned but in vain. In the meantime the accountant made himself scarce at the office. The Examiner was at his wits' end, and he brought the matter to the notice of his superior, who wrote to the Police, and was about to get him apprehened. The accountant got scent of this and, very wisely, wrote to the Examiner that as his wife was very ill he could not attend office, but that he would do so the next day and settle the matter of the deficit. He turned up at the office accordingly and paid down the amount of the deficit to the Examiner. Curiously enough the Examiner and his superior were satisfied, and they let the man remain in service. The ethics of this proceeding it is extremely difficult to understand. Any one else, in the circumstances, would have thought it right to inquire into the case minutely and decide it on its merits.
The official feeling against Mr. George Palmer, Secretary to the Government, in the Public Works Department, which
