A MATTER OP BOOK-KEEPING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVIII, Issue 12935, 1 October 1902, Page 6

A MATTER OP BOOK-KEEPING.

The report of the Public Accounts Committee shows that the Treasury ms following the usual practice in charging Mr Pilcher’s draft for the expenses of thel Coronation Contingent to the Imprest Account, bub it does not prove that the practice itself is a desirable one. The Chairman of the Committee, in replying to the criticism of the report an the House of Representatives, said that the draft ought to have been charged to the Unauthorised Expenditure Account in order, as he added, that the House might have an opportunity to discuss the payment. We entirely agree with Mr Fisher, but we have no. doubt that the House will still get a chance to consider the matter. Indeed, it managed to cover the ground pretty well yesterday afternoon, and the Acting-Premier must have felt that he would have been saved a good deal of bother if his chief had obtained the authority of Parliament for the expenditure. The cost of the Contingent will probably run into quite as much as £IO,OOO, and thus is a far larger sum than was suggestedl by Mr Seddon last year. At the same time we do not think that the taxpayers will grudge the money. New Zealand would have gained a very unenviable distinction if it had refused to join in the military display at the Coronation, and it would have been poor economy to hurry the men back, as Mr Hornsby thinks should) have been done, on the postponement of the ceremony. There was practically no- additional expense in consequence of the dela}', and the colony certainly did not suffer in other respects from the detention of her representatives in London. It is, w© think, only the method of charging the expenditure that is open to question. Possibly Mr Fraser is right in saying that the Unauthorised Expenditure Account is nearly exhausted, but there is nothing to prevent the Government taking n vote even now to cover the cost of the Contingent, and 1 this, it seems to us, ’would be far better than quibbling over what is after all mainly a matter of book-keeping.