A.—4

101

Australia. There is no good reason why the whole transactions of each station should not be rendered periodically, and its total indebtedness exhibited in one balance. And there is always a danger, when several concurrent accounts are kept by the same accountant, that errors made either purposely or inadvertently may escape detection unless the whole transactions are condensed into one account and the balances established with the Bank. A book, however, is kept in the Audit to show the whole remittances and debit balances on stations, and when the balance exceeds a fixed amount the Stationmaster has to make a return showing the items of which it is composed. Wharfage is collected on some wharves, but is not included in the way-bills. It is brought to charge on the account-current. Much of it is for wharfage of goods not passing over the lines. The account is supported by the butts of receipts given, in numbered receipt books, for wharfage paid. A cash-book is kept on the station, in which the receipts are entered in daily totals from a rough cash-book of separate receipts. The abstracts are corrected in the Audit, and the Stationmaster is advised of the errors, and at the end of each month he is again reminded of these errors and required to send up an amended copy of his abstracts, upon which the summary balance-sheet is based. As a rule there is no delivery of goods, but on one line which was bought from a private company, on which there had previously been delivery, the system has been continued, the department using its own horses and carts and making a fixed charge per ton. Special trains are run only on the authority of the Manager, from whose office a notice is sent to the Controller, who brings them on charge.

There are only two railways in Tasmania the Launceston and Western Railway, and the Launceston and Hobart Town line, called the Tasmanian Main Line. The latter belongs to a private company in England, and has been constructed under a contract with the Colonial Government, by which the company is guaranteed interest at the rate of 5 per cent, per annum upon a capital of £650,000. This line has been working about five years out of the thirty years for which the contract lasts, and no profits above working expenses have yet been realized. The Government has therefore hitherto had to pay the interest at 5 per cent, on the whole capital debt of the company All the accounts of the line are submitted to audit by the Government in order to secure a faithful performance of the conditions on both sides. The head office of the Launceston and Western line is at Launceston, and I was unable to find time to return thither to inspect the accounts. I was supplied with the following information by Mr Johnston, now in the Audit Office, but formerly Accountant to the line • The accounts are upon the monthly system. In the goods traffic the abstracts are rendered weekly by the stations, and the general summary balance-sheet of goods traffic is made up at the head office monthly The way-bills are not rendered to the Audit, and the only check on the outward way-bills is that supplied by the receiving station. The tickets are printed at a private printing office at Launceston, and are supplied by the Railway Auditor to the stations. A ticket stock-book is kept at the Railway Audit Office showing the tickets on hand on each station. Ticket returns are rendered from the stations daily, and the tickets are collected with considerable accuracy, and daily returns of uncollected tickets rendered to the Traffic Audit. The money is sent up daily from the stations to the head office with triplicate remittance-notes, one of which is returned receipted to the station, the second retained by the Cashier, and the third rendered to Audit. There is a carting contract for the delivery of goods. The railway has also a contract with the Post Office to deliver mails not only on the line of the railway, but also at various country post offices at a distance from it, the conveyances being provided by the railway. It is stated that the railway makes a