FRAUDS CHARGED IN REPORT. 115 



with the statement that the reports made to the Fraud as alleg- 

 ed in the Report. 



Treasury Department by the officials in charge 

 of the Islands are "often contradictory" and 

 "manifestly inaccurate;" one of the reasons for 

 "these discrepancies "being the alleged fact above 

 quoted. The Commissioners give no authority ^°g^ OIlt7foT 

 for the last-mentioned statement, nor do they 

 recite the sources of information for their insinu- 

 ations as to fraud of any kind. It would not be 

 too strong an expression in relation to them to say 

 that they are an inexcusable libel. 



The Commissioners have, with the usual h. w. Elliott's 



statements dis- 



"care" employed in their examination of a all tortcd - 

 documentary evidence" (Sec. 8), culled out of 

 the Census Report of Mr. Henry W. Elliott a 

 statement which gives the impression that the 

 skins taken by the lessees were only counted in 

 bundles on the Islands, and that they were 

 recounted in the same bundles by the customs 

 authorities in San Francisco. Mr. Elliott, how- 

 ever, intended no such conclusion to be 

 drawn, as is evidenced by the following quo- 

 tation from the same report, page 106: " The ox^SbSo&iSdl 

 skins are counted four times on the island, 

 as follows : by the company's agent and the 

 native chiefs, when they are put into the salt- 

 houses, the latter giving their accounts, after 

 each day's killing, to the government agent; 

 again when they are bundled by the natives, who 



