A.—4,

123

monthly, and are passed on for payment with the certificate of their receipt by the Storekeeper, supported by the invoices. All issues are made on requisitions, and a delivery-note is sent with the goods leaving the store, which is returned receipted by the Sub-storekeeper or other proper officer receiving the goods. All receipts and issues are recorded in the order of date in a day-book—the receipts from the invoices, the issues from the delivery-notes. The ledger is posted from the day-book and is in the ordinary form of military store ledgers, the receipts and issues being recorded on opposite pages, and a separate column appropriated to each article. The ledger contains numbers only without values. It is balanced quarterly, and the balance in hand carried down. Stock is taken at the same time, and the discrepancies adj Listed, written off, or surcharged. In the case of clothing, however, the ledger is balanced and stock taken every month. Arms, &c, on issue are written off the Stock Ledger, but are brought on charge on the Stores on Issue Ledger to the debit of the corps receiving them. Goods issued on payment are entered on a pay-sheet, which is receipted by the men, and a deduction-sheet is prepared monthly and forwarded to the Paymaster of the corps, who deducts the value of the clothing or other goods issued from the pay of the men. Ammunition, in excess of the quantity allowed for practice free, is charged against the corps, and deducted from the capitation allowance. No accounts of the values of goods are kept in this store except for the purpose of determining the prices to be charged for goods issued on payment; and for this purpose 5 per cent, commission is charged on colonial goods and 10 per cent, on imported goods to cover the charges for freight and insurance. When goods are sent to a sub-store the values are entered on the deliverynote, in order to inform the Sub-storekeeper what prices he is to charge. Returns of balances in stock were formerly made to the Inspector of Stores quarterly, and a general survey of the stock was made once a year. No returns are now rendered for Audit, and no inspection of the stock in any of the Military Stores has been made, except by the Storekeeper, for more than three years. The books and papers, as well as the stores themselves, in the Wellington Store appear to be carefully kept and in excellent order; but it cannot be said to be satisfactory that no account should be kept of the money values of the transactions, and no general balance-sheet showing the position of the store : still less that no audit of the books or stock should be provided for outside the department itself.

The stores for lighthouses are procured for the most part from England; the • rest are bought upon yearly contract in Wellington, where there is a general store, but no Storekeeper. The store is supposed to be in the custody of the Chief Clerk of the Marine Department. Goods supplied by local contractors are not usually delivered into the store, but sent on board the steamer by which they are conveyed to the lighthouses. A copy of the order on the contractor for the goods is sent with them to the lighthouse-keepers. The stores are delivered on board packed, and are not examined or checked before shipment, nor is any receipt returned by the lighthouse-keeper; but the latter reports by the next opportunity, which may not occur for many weeks, if there is any deficiency in quantity or quality in the articles named in the list as ordered. The lighthouse-keepers keep a Store Ledger, in which are entered all the goods received and expended, and make a return to the Marine Department every six months of the receipt and consumption of each article. A store ledger is kept in the Marine Department for the goods received into and issued from the store, but does not include the stores issued to the lighthouses: the only information it possesses as to the latter is contained in the returns by the lighthousekeepers, which show the receipts, issues, and balances in hand of every article. When any shipment is made to a lighthouse, the number of articles sent is entered in red ink on the last half-yearly return, which is checked against the next return received from the lighthouse. The contractors send in their vouchers

Marine Stores.