COMMERCIAL

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 12752, 7 January 1936, Page 8

COMMERCIAL

SHEEP TREK TO WAIKATO. The first of Poverty Pay’s 300,000 sheep for the Waikato this season were already on their way at the end of last, month, although the greater proportion will not start to move until this month'. Midnight trains from Paeroa took heavy loads. An Opotiki message advised that a mob of 2000 passed through that district last Thursday, while another 2000 was then on its way from the coast, via Capo Runaway, but the latter mob was expected to take about ten days to reach Opotiki, by which time manymore mobs should be starting out.

HOME MEAT MARKET. The Bank of Australasia is in receipt of the following cable, dated January 1, from its London office: • “Frozen lambs: Prior to Christmas holidays there was loir demand foi time of year mostly for Australian. New Zealand new season’s now arriving in increased quantities hut, owing to comparatively high prices, demand limited and market shows signs of getting weaker. Frozen mutton: Wether supplies limited and prices steady although demand has been poor, ewes meeting with more inquiries and prices firmer. I 1 rozen beef: Trade better, market steady."

“STANDARD COSTING.** A MODERN 'DEVELOPMENT. Throughout the world leaders of industry and .commerce are giving keen study to proposals and projects for better organising and functioning of business. This subject is discussed helpfully in fan editorial article in “The Accountant,” published by the English Institute of Chartered Accountants.

“From the purely accounting point of view,” the writer states, “scientific management, through the preparation of budgets, naturally leads to the consideration of the most modern form of costing known as ‘standard costing/ The great advantage of this scheme is that results tiro no longer looked at as absolute measurements, but as degrees of success or failure relative to a standard setup beforehand. Further, there Hows from this the most important subsidiary advantage that the causes of variation are laid lire nd on be studied in isolation from all oilier factors. To our mind, one of the most interesting of current accounting problems is the question whether the ‘standard’ so brought into the realm of accounting should be a mere abstract figure permanently set up as a tixed mark against which the achievement of tbo stated period can be compared or whether, on the other hand, it should be a movable- standard representing the budgeted anticipation, the facts as they materialise being partly ia judgment on performance and partly a judgment on the accuracy of the forecast. The distinction here glanced at exercises the greatest possible influence oil the tech liique of accounting because it decides the question whether, in practising standard costing, the ledger accounts should be expressed in terms of the imaginary ‘standard.’ differences between this and actual cost being diverted to variation accounts, or whether the ledger accounts should bo kept in ‘actual’ figures, the stanward being set against ibis in memorandum columns, variation ac-

counts being avoided. “It- is needless to add- that the practice of tbo scientific control of management cannot bo entered upon haphazard. It must either be complete or nothing at all. Completeness involves the taking of a comprehensive view in which each part of an organisation is put into its proper perspective. In other words although the details of the making of a plan may originate from committees or individuals, each taking a sectional view, yet- the bringing of the details info <a, comprehensive whole must be the duty of a central authority. Whatever may be the name of this centralised authority, the person exercising its functions must necessarily be -a. person who grasps the connection between 'finance and all the other 1 unctions of industry. That person may nut. be called! an accountant, but nevertheless lie exercises an art which represents the practice of accounting iti its most modern and highly developed form.”