IMPERIAL SUPPLIES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3165, 17 August 1917, Page 8

IMPERIAL SUPPLIES

THE BUSINESS METHOD. 'The Auditor-General has presented a report to Parliament giving a brief outline of the arrangement under which purchases of Imperial Government supplies aro effected, together with a. programme of tho audit conducted in connection therewith. He points out that at first when wheat was the on"'y .'iri'ile of produce the extra work entailed but little disarrangement of the .■permanent dutios of the staff, but* contemporaneous with tho increase in the sphere of the operations of the Government Supplies Department tho work of the Audit Office has increased, and now a special branch is required to cope with an audit of considerable magnitude. The volume of work can be gauged by the fact that the payments to March 31 last amounted to ,£27,787,735, representing purchases and incidental expenses on behalf of the Imperial Government on account of'meat to the value of ,£15,800,701, cheese £2,465,156, wool £9,315,924, skins and hides £60,883, scheelite £67,450; also including payments . on behalf . of the local .Government for butter and cheese for military supplies to the extent of £30,644 and £17,484 respectively, niid' payments under the butter equalisation scheme totalling £39,463. All these accounts havo been audited to March SI, and it is pleasing to report that'they ai'o in a very satisfactory state, being kept on good business lines, and with every reasonable precaution for prevention of fraud. According to tho accounts at March 31, a sum of £806,172 advances made on cheese then, in store.- -Tho butter-fat account shows that at March 31' last the total receipts amounted to £147,974. ...

SEEDS FOR NEW ZEALAND BEQUEST TO THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. (Bee; August 16, 8.30 p.m.) London, August 15. Sir Thomas Mackenzie (New Zealand High Commisssioned) urged Mr. P rot hero (British Minister for Agriculture) io grant increased facilities for the shipment of seeds to New Zealand. Mr. Prothero replied that his Department was preparing statistics of tho Motherland's seed requirements, and later would do its beat to meet NewZealand's needs.—Aits.-N.Z. Cable Assn.