A.--Yes.
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1817,9
Q. Are there any more?
A.-My stock book, shewing the amount of stock received, and my order book.
Q.-Haven't you got anything in the shape of a journal or a ledger ?
A.-No, these are the only books.
Q. Do you think that that is businesslike?
A.—I am not really a business man, but the Government is satisfied.
Q.-This registers the sums of money received from Chinese and others, and whether it is paid into the Bank or not?
A. Yes.
Q.--That amounts to practically nothing at all. Do you mean to say that you have no record of the sums due from different persons to the Government. For instance, you make a contract with a certain person to sell hith a certain thing from the Government
stores.
A.-We do sell stores.
Q. We will say the scavenging account, or the licensing fees.
A.In addition to these books of course we have the monthly pay sheets, both for personal emoluments and other charges.
Q.-Supposing I was a Governinent auditor, going into your accounts, and was want- ing to see the amount of money you ought to receive in your Department, where could I find it ?
A.-There is no money which I ought to receive, which is not entered in that book. The only money which I collect and give receipts for are the cemetery fees, and the amount of cemetery dues is entered there, and when I pay it into the Bank it is entered on the other side.
Q.-Unless this book is kept by an absolutely reliable man, in point of fact unless you keep it yourself, it seems to me the Government might be robbed of a good deal of money, because the Government has no records or check.
A-A receipt is issued for every amount.
Q.-Supposing he doesn't issue a receipt. Supposing he issues a fly receipt, one of his own receipts, an ordinary receipt which he can get printed by the thousand himself.
A. In the cemetery account, the Inspector sends in a report, and the number of grave spaces is compared. This is entered in a book. The different sections and numbers in this book must coincide with the numbers sent in by the Inspector. That book and the receipt book also goes up to the local auditor. Therefore if any grave site has been sold, it must be shewn in this book.
Q.-That question was gone into before the Commission, and it seemed to me that there were no records kept at the Cemetery, and if there were no records kept in the Sanitary Department, as seems to me to be the case, it seems to me you are in a hopeless muddle. You could be robbed of half your income, and you would not be any the wiser.
A. The records are examined by the local auditor, and the local treasurer, and they are perfectly at one that they are sufficient.