AUDITING AND THE NEW ZEALAND ACCOUNTANTS' INSTITUTE.

Evening Post, Volume XLIX, Issue 109, 9 May 1895, Page 3

AUDITING AND THE NEW ZEALAND ACCOUNTANTS' INSTITUTE.

TO THB EDITOR. Sfß— My attention has been drawn to~ a report of the recent meeting of the Opera Houae Company, at which Messrs. Gale and M'Lellan (brabketed together again, as usual) Btated that the auditing of publio company accounts should be entrusted to the members of tbe New Zealand Accountants' Institute only. This is very fnnny. Let me show your readers' what this means. Some two years ago Mr. Gale, for some reason or other, was particularly anxious to geonre the formation of an Accountants' Institute- a very neoeßsary and desirable institution. It then became known that admission w«b to be without examination, and through the laxity of the regulations almost anyone could gain admission. Consequently commission agento, rent and debt oolleotora, insnranoe agents, merchants' clerks, and others, applied for admission and were duly elected. Since then my attention has been drawn to several cases of glaring incompetency on the part of some members of the Institute, to Bay nothing of their constant broaohes of professional etiquette. I have seen balance-sheets, known to be full of errors, certified to as being correot, and the auditor's signature is followed by the magical initials " M.1.A.N.Z." It ia well known in the South and Auckland, and I am now finding out that it is the same in Wellington, that the skilled accountants who have passed a higher standard than is required by the New Zealand Institute, and who have hadepeoialtrainingm the best accountants' omcea at Home, are not members of the New Zealand Institute, •3 they hesitate to oome down to its level. Btill Messrs. Gale and M'Lellan have the audacity to get up at a meeting of share, holders and say that members of the New Zealand Institute are the only persons

qualified for the position of auditors to a publio company. Unless something is done to insttuot members of your Colonial Institute in the duties of auditors and their responsibilities, I am inclined to think that instead of Mr. Gale boasting of being the father of the Institute, he will in later years have reason to blush for the conduct of his foster child. I happen to have with me some of the examination • papers of the undermentioned Institute, and wonld like to lend those that refer to audit- • ing to the New Zealand Institute, in order to test its members by setting them similar i papers. ■ I am. &c, A Stddbkt op the Chartkrfd Accountants' Instiiute op England and Walbs.