COMPANY ACCOUNTS

Evening Star, Issue 23525, 14 March 1940, Page 18

COMPANY ACCOUNTS

RIGHTS IH WARTIME A leading article in * The Accountant ’ (London) on company accounts in wartime raises some points in which a large number of Ncav Zealanders will be interested. “It is true that in many trades and industries Avar produces abnormal conditions; that price, profit, and cost levels become exceptional; and that stability largely disappears ‘ for the duration,’ ” tho 'writer states. “ Nevertheless, trade, commerce and industry continue, shareholders are still interested in the prosperity of their undertakings; and scientific costing assumes a quite exceptional importance, especially in the case of the large number of firms that are directly or indirectly engaged on Government contracts.

“ If shareholders are entitled to reasonably informative accounts in time of peace, they are equally entitled,to them in time of war. We'regard the issue as one of considerable public interest _ and importance, inasmuch as there is a tendency, which Was far too apparent between 1914-1918 to regard war as an all-efficient reason,and excuse for not doing things that in time of peace are done both. as a matter of course and because they are recognised as being necessary. The attitude embodied in the phrase, ‘ There’s a war on,’ can easily—far too easily—convert relatively trivial acts of commission or omission into far-reaching precedents. Also, a practice originally introduced to meet wartime emergency conditions can easily become a more or less permanent peace-time legacy.. “ The accounting profession has a special interest in seeing that the method of compiling, company reports should so far as is possible, continue during the war to be based on normal practice. “ Any sten in the reverse direction is a retrograde step, and in most instances it could not be justified on the, pica of war-time conditions. Shareholders and members of the profession can exercise a considerable measure of control in the matter. The suspension of the railway traffic returns may not be of first-class importance in itself, but it might conceivably become a precedent of first-class importance. It is not only for the safeguarding of liberty that eternal vigilance is needed.”