CORRESPONDENCE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 22, 26 July 1910, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

♦ " EVIL, BE THOU MY GOOD." XO THE EDITOfc. Sir, — In your last issue "Sir Bedivere" deliberates at length upon some of tho points raised by myself in your • Saturday's edition. He makes the following atatenvent: — "In objecting to my assertion that the totalisator holds out in itself no inducements to gamble, 'Lancelot' exhibits signs of mental confusion. The only inducement offered to invest money upon the result of a race per medium of the totalisator lies in the thought of possible gain. . .'' Is not that an inducement? What more does the bookmaker hold out by way of inducement? It is granted that he may exercise a certain amount of personal influence and so render his calling more effectively pernicious than the totalisator, but the fact that on© system of gambling is worse in its effects than another does not call for the retention of either. "Sir Bedivere" makes certain forecasts for the sake of his antigambling friends. I would forecast that during the next year, if tho totalisator be still extant, many excuses for robbing employers will be "getting into debt through losing on the tote." "Sir Bedivere" likens land speculation to putting money on a horse. The comparison is illogical, as in the first case a realisable asset, is obtained, and in the second only a chance of gain or loss. The Legislature has seen the illeffects of land gambling, and has attempted to suppress it, especially by issuing newly-opened land to bona fide settlers only. To be consistent, totalisator gambling should be suppressed also. My assertion "that racehorses and courses do not tend to increase a country's assets, but rather to reduce them, as they not only faU to bring money into the country to any extent, but rather attract it from the community to the detinment of legitimate productive lines of business, ' "Sir Bedivere" states to be "obviously untrue and stands self-condemned." He has not attempted to prove it untrue, or that the £300,000 or more invested in the sport produces to the country anything like the value it should. That our horses were_ so favourably regarded in South Africa during the Boer War was not due to the propensities of New Zealanders for horseracing. In Australia they are even more fond of the sport, and in the Argentine it is popular. The difference in. stamina can only be due to the climatical conditions prevailing in the different countries. Can. "Sir Bedivere" account for tho excellence of this city's heavier horses, and the inferior quality of the • lighter ones, although there are so many racing clubs close to Wellington? "Sir Bedivere" states in regard to horse-racing that the owners are "intensely fond of it, and when success comes to them the pleasure so gained fully recompenses for past pecuniary losses." If that be so, then stakes (though he asserted to the contrary in Friday's issue) will be unnecessary to the success of the sport; the ladies of New Zealand could still sea the silkß flutter, and all this about loss of Dominion's assets, loss of revenue, men without work, and d-oftsrioration •of horseflesh, be waste of time and paper. He states that "what is advocated is the best and surest means of controlling gambling." Was not the best means of controlling pak-a-poo making it illegal? To desire consistency of legislation, and to seek the highest good for the community, is to "moralise," which is, according to "Sir Bedivere," undesirable. Apparently his efforts are directed towards retaining something pleasant to the senses, without regard to the welfare of the State and its individual members. — I am, etc., LANCELOT. Wellington.. 18th July, 1910. NEW ZEALAND ACCOUNTANTS' SOCIETY. TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— From tho correspondence which has appeared in tho columns of your paper and that of your,, contemporaries, especially m tho South Island, and from the report of a meeting of certain members of the society held in this city on Monday evening, tho 12th inst.,. the general public might reatonably be excused if they came to the conclusion that the present council of the society was attempting to perpetrate a deep-laid echonie to the injury of the public, and of injustice to tho registered members of the society, by moving to have the accounts of public companies, audited by public accountants. 1 therefore ask you to grant me space to plcjc the pecit.ort of the matter fully before youi readers, leaving them to form the,ir own opinions. In tho first placo, 1 wortld etate that the New Zealand Accountants Act passed last ■session. wa3 not put fonwifd by its promoters, nor ytfc passed by the Legislature, in tho intbreslG oi iicjouniants, and mos.t certainly not in that of the registered accountants — s-aoh would have been clas^ , legislation. — buc in ti'.o interests of the general pubhc by legislating to provide a body of moil who wou d presumably have j tho ueceraary professional knowledge, ' qualification, and experience, logetner with btatutory ataiua, whose services would be a\ailabio to tho public. That such I was the case, I think you will agree is correct, us Pi-ofecsor Salmond iv the Memorandum of Hie Bill sayj : "Tho pur. poso ot this Bill is to establish a corporate body consisting of qualified accountants." j When moving the second reading. Sir j J. G. Ward eaid : ''This. Bill has been conceived entirely in tho interest of the ! general public by. establishing a recog- | mssd body of quahlied and competent parsons as public accountants and registered accountants whoso services will be available for the public, etc.," :md again : "1 want to bay that in this country it is generally ugieod that it i& of tho iirst consequence to our business people, and indeed to the country generally, mat we should have a registered Society of Accountants in this Dominion. 7 Mr. Aitken, speaking to the motion, haid : "When one remomburs that tho goneral business pubhc' are to v very largo extent dependent upon the Kuwuiitunce that are available, and when one realises that any man who chooses can tot up as an accountant and practise tho profession of accountancy, although knowing very little about it, one begins to £col and know that it is absolutely necessary that those who are proficient and efficient accountante should have some hall-mark by which they may ba known to tho general public. This is by way of protection for the business people as a whole." I now come to the matter or publio accountant and registered accountant. It ie only those who have had any practical experience of attempting to draft a Bill of this character who can have any conception of the almost insurmountable difficulties which beset them, and the promoters of this Bill being anxious to produce a measure fulfilling the object aimed at, viz., the protection of the public, and yet not inflicting any hardship or injury upon any person, found tho question of registration of members an exceedingly difficult probleiu. It was recognised that persons in business as accountants, or practising accountancy, and also thoso persons \vho had passed tho examinations of the two recognised accountancy bodies, were entitled to registration. It was also realised that there was a, considerable number c>f men who were employed as accountants throughout tho length and breadth of the Dominion, men with a greater experience and higher qualifications than a certain number of*men then in business, and to have admitted tho latter and excluded tho former would bo manifestly unjust- but it was thought that if the latter were admitted and classed a 6 registered accountimts, with tho right to be placed on the roll of public accountants upci commencing business on their own account, their case would be met. , This, sir, is the hietory of the registered

accountant ; he was merely an incident to be dealt with, not one of tho main principles of the Bill. It was always realised that the attainment of tho objects of the Bill absolutely depended upon, first, tho registration board, and, seoondly, the first council. We havo had bitter experience of how tho board failed, nay miserably failed, to carry put its duties, by admitting some 1200 to 1500 members, who in no sense of tho word arc accountante — a great number of whom are not ordinary competent bookkeepers, and who will compose the groat bulk of registered accountants who aro claiming to pose as qualified mon, whereas, with the exception of those men who have passed tho examinations, and a very small minority pf others, they are absolutely devoid of any knowledge of the righte and duties of liquidators, trustees, executors, and partners, or of incorporated companies, and the accounts appertaining to them, and surely this is a matter of gravo importanoo to the general public. I hold no brief on behalf of the members of the council, but I consider they have honestly endeavoured to carry out tho duties entrusted to thorn, and have shown marked ability in the work they have alroady done, which has been entirely in the direction of carrying out tho spirit and letter of the Act. I however strongly disapprove of subsection D, clause 67, appearing in the draft regulations of tho society put forward by tho council, and voted against it when they wero considered, as' I oonsidor it was entirely out of place therein, but I am > equally as strongly of opinion that in the interest of the public, amendments in the Companies Act should bo made by which the objects of the clause would be attained. In conclusion, I maintain, that the action of the council is in the interest and protection of the public, and in strict conformity with the spirit and -intention of tho Act. The opposition raised is simply from a few interested men, and the fact that these hay« got the ear of tho farmers' associations, tho members of which, as a rule, have as much knowledge of what constitutes an accountant or auditor as the proverbial dog has of a watch-pocket, ha 6 given it an importance it otherwise would not have obtained. Shortly, has the interest of tho community as a whole, or that of a few interested persons, to prevail ? — I am, etc., ROBERT WILBERFOSS. Wellington. 20th July, 1910.