A PERTINENT QUESTION.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 914, 6 September 1910, Page 4

A PERTINENT QUESTION.

SHOULD SHAEEBEOKEES -ACT AS ,'. ;. iAUDITOES? ■■■ ;Vy ;

-.- At; the meeting of tho; Council of .tie Wellington. Chamber, of .Commerce held, on August-'l, the. question cropped up whether it was quite right, and'commercially, proper for sharebrokers to act.as auditors,. and it. was then .pointed .out in the course of a discussion that as an auditor a sharebroker might .have, access, to -information of •'which he might take advantage on the. opportunity, arising, and that such information might ; be all the more tempting to.those sharebrokers who,, apart from.'attending to the •needs'"- of. their-clients, 'speculated-, more or, 'less heavily themselves, in stock.".. "After ■, a. desultory discussion the' matter .:' was .-re-. ferred to the Legislature Committee of the Chamber for a report.;- This was' presented, in the form of a motion, which was presented at yesterday's meeting of the council as "follows:— ;•■. ■■'~ /'■•.■ .That in the opinion, of this.com-*•. v , mittee it. is highly undesirable that \ shareholders. should act as auditors .of companies, and. that the. council' be asked;to take" such action as it ' may deem advisable with a view to ' calling attention to the question. The council endorsed the motion, and intends to bring the matter before the Accountants' Institute, the •■• Wellington Sharebrokers'/. Association, ■ : the Accountants' Society," and other kindred institutions.