155

A.—4

such as the Railways and Public Works, minute accounts are indispensable to the conduct of their business, and to the preparation of the statistical information which is necessary for its management, and where the detailed accounts are kept in the Treasury, it follows that a mass of accounts are kept twice over, involving much useless labour and cost. Nor is this all, for whenever it becomes necessary to compare the accounts of the Treasury and the department, a further expenditure of time and trouble takes place in detecting small errors, and reconciling slight discrepancies, and none but those practically engaged in the work have any idea of the loss of time and the amount of trouble caused by these adjustments. On the other hand, in those departments in which no accounts are kept, it is notorious that when information is required as to any particular item of expenditure, as to the whole amount expended, or the balance available for issue, the departmental officers are in the habit of applying to the Treasury for information. For these reasons, I submit that an important step towards a more economical administration of the public finances would be taken, if every department were required to keep full and detailed accounts of its transactions, and that such accounts should be kept by a simple system of double entry, balanced weekly, and compared with the Treasury books, so that any errors might be readily detected and corrected. Thus the primary responsibility for the expenditure of each department would be distinctly thrown on the Minister on whom it is supposed theoretically to lie. But a further and higher duty attaches to the Treasury, in that it is the office charged with the management of the general finance of the country, and in that capacity ought to have an overruling authority over all the departments in all matters relating to the public revenue and expenditure. Thus in England, whilst the administration of the departments is uncontrolled within the limits of the appropriations, no change, however small, can be made in the expenditure as detailed in the Estimates without the consent of the Lords of the Treasury. Again, the Treasury ought to exercise full control over the forms of the account kept in the departments, and by all their accounting officers; and should require them to be kept, although with such variations as may suit the requirements of each, still, with such uniformity of principle, that the results appearing in the departmental books shall coincide with those shown in the books of the Treasury. The Treasury accounts of New Zealand are now published in much less detail than formerly, or than is at present the case in most of the colonies. It must be admitted that what has been lost in bulk has been more than gained in clearness of arrangement; but it must be admitted that all the accounts now published can be prepared without any reference to the detailed abstract-books kept by the Treasury. Hence I cannot perceive that the public service would suffer if this part of the work done in the Treasury were abandoned. If more detail than is given in the Treasury accounts is required, it can always be rendered by the departments, without the reduplication of accounts, provided only that the accuracy of the departmental books is attested by a frequent comparison of the totals arrived at in the departments with those in the Treasury The Treasury would -then be confined to recording the receipts and payments under the several heads of the Estimates; and, which is its higher and peculiar duty, in regulating the general, finance of the country and providing the ways and means for meeting the public engagements. I cannot but think that some reduction in expenditure may be effected in this direction, as the accounts required in those departments which at present keep none, would be so simple as to require little, if any, increase to the present staff, whilst the saving of double accounts in the Treasury and the Railway and Public Works Departments would be pure gain. The direct saving of expense would, however, be of less importance than that which should be expected to arise from throwing more immediately on each department the responsibility of its own expenditure. The next step towards securing a more prudent and economical management would be found in a very large reduction in the sum placed at the disposal of the Government to meet unauthorized payments. In all popular Governments it is