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2851,2
The Chairman. Supposing the auditor came along unexpectedly, and said "I want to know exactly how many stores you have got; what is the value of the stock in hand at the present moment." What book would you refer to, to find it out?
A.-The auditor refers to that. (General Store Book).
Q. He would have to take an individual balance from each of those books you have there ?
A.--And mind you, he also has his account with the Crown Agents, shewing what articles have been received from home and locally and he checks them in that way.
Q-It practically amounts to this, as far as I understand, that your books are not balanced. You keep a day to day ledger, and then the auditor comes along, and he accepts that, and he makes his own balance, and says it is correct. As a matter of fact, you have no summary such as a shop or firm would have?
A.-I am not well acquainted with book-keeping, myself, but that is the method adopted, and it has satisfied the Government Auditor.
Q-At the same time, you have no more summary than that?
A.-No.
Q.-You dont strike a balance every week, or every day?
A.-There is a balance every month.
Q-Balance of cash, is it not?
A.-Expendtiure.
Q-But I mean in stores?
A.-We send in to the Government periodical returns, shewing what we have.
Q-But you have no books shewing that you have struck that balance periodically?
A.-No.
Q. It comes back to this really, that the books, so far as you understand them, are satisfactory, and pass the Government test, but as a matter of fact, were it not for the Government Auditor, there would be no regular balance struck, as to exactly how you stood at any one date, with regard to your stores?
A-I can't answer that, because there being a Government Auditor, there is a balance struck every month.
Mr. Shelton Hooper.-Not a balance of stores?
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A. There is a return, shewing the revenue one receives every month, and shewing how that has been expended.
Q-But the balance of stores? Supposing the Government send down to you,-to-day is the first of the month,-saying how many gallons of Jeyes' Fluid have you got, you would have to look up this book, and add up this side, and add up the other, and the balance would be what you ought to have, and you would have to take stock to see if you had that balance, as it existed in the book?
A. That is so, yes.
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