ACCOUNTANTS ACT, 1907.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7242, 30 July 1907, Page 4

ACCOUNTANTS ACT, 1907.

To the Editor. Sir, —I must offer my excuses to your correspondent " Another Bookkeeper " for delay in replying to his communication, but I have no leisure, and must be very brief now. I will give you -the facts of the base, and persons interested must judge for themselves.

First, schedule of fees payable to the institute incorporated under this Act: 1. By all applicants for registration: Deposit (being part of applicant's entrance fee) payable on application to the Registrar-General or the Council for Registration, £1 ls. 2. By persons signifying their intention to practice as public accountants: (a) Entrance fee, exclusive of deposit on application, £3 3s; (b) Annual subscription or practicing fee, £3 3s; (c) By persons, not being public accountants, who act only as salaried accountants to or officials of an employer: (a) Entrance fee inclusive of deposit or application, £2 2s; (b) annual subscription, £1 ls. 4. By persons who are salaried accountants to or officials of an employer who also engage in accountancy work outside of the duties of their regular employment: (a) Additional entrance fee, £1 ls; .(b) annual subscription, £3 3s. All fees payable in advance.

This is the schedule of fees, tp wliich must be added the Registrar-General's application fee of one guinea, making the first year's subscription £7 7s for class No. 2, for class 3 £3 3s, for class 4 £4 4s. There is no provision for returning fees of rejected candidates. This Act is compulsory, and becomes operative on the Ist January next. Therefore, every person at present earning a, living,by pen and books must cither join or stand on one side and find a new trade. If the Act applied only to members of the ' institute already in existence, no one would raise any objection, but when they launch out to sweep every worker into their net, it is time to cry halt. There arc unexampled powers given this association, and the penalties are taken from the criminal code, offences being equal to misdemeanor, and a fine of £50 is enforcable. The association will invade k every commercial office, great and small, and will kill right out the man or woman who ekes out a meagre living by doing tradesmen's books at night. This is wliat your correspondent thinks the advanced, state of society demands to protect its interests. I have not heard the cry from commercial men yet, although from the Institute it comes loud enough, and the reason will not be difficult to fathom when you see the powers they take to raise and disburse money.

The Institute takes power to raise money on mortgage and by debenture upon real, estate and fees to fall duo; they expressly exempt themselves from stating what tho money is for; it may ostensibly be raised for reproductive works or spent on banquets, its all the same to these light minded gentry who seek power to set the standard of commercial morality, • and then adjudicate upon it. The power of spending is 1 more liberal still; they include salaries, travelling, paying members fees, charity, and grants to distressed members. I know two that can take £500 per annum each, and ask for more. A dissatisfied candidate must appeal to the Supreme Court, which is equivalent to no appeal. For themselves, they use the statute law by a provision to validate sueing outside the place of the Court's jurisdiction—another act of arrogance born of fancied impunity. Your correspondent lays great stress upon matriculation and other evidences of intellectual cultivation, and this is right to demand of gentlemen who desire the hall-mark of the Institute, but it must stop at this class; they will only in rare instances possess the practical knowledge gained in the stress of business. It is necessary here to remind your correspondent that such associations have been in existence for half a century, and have proved in all cases of stress a broken reed. I will just barely touch upon a few institutions annually white-washed by chartered accountants —The bank of New Zealand, the New Zealand Loan Co., Jabez Balfour, Citizens Life, City of Glasgow, and the great house of Gurney, which your correspondent will never have heard of, no doubt. These cases all prove the utter inability, the futility, of certificated accountants and auditors. The fact is that commercial men do not want them, but the bucket of white-wash.' I could have wished that. "Another Bookkeeper," who has plenty of time, had given us some facts instead of an eulogy upon Frenzied Finance. It seems necessary to tell him that English people do not go to America for i examples, or for new methods. The name of America is, prima facia, evidence for distrust of anything carrying the brand, neither do frenzied or any other form of lunatic financiers use the rank and file of accountants at forty shillings a week and find themselves, and these are the people who will suffer most by the Bill. There is much to be said against tin's j measure, but I may not trespass on your snace further, nor have T time, and if "Another Bookkeeper" is too "tired" to wait, I can recommend the the grave for quietness and rest. A BOOK KEEPER. j