COMPANIES ACT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26532, 6 August 1947, Page 7

COMPANIES ACT

AMENDMENTS POSSIBLE The belief that the New Zealand Companies Act might be amended to bring it in line with new legislation of Great Britain was expressed by speakers at a recent meeting of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Society of Accountants. It is expected that one of the amendments will be concerned with the improvement of balance sheets to ensure satisfactory information to shareholders of companies, and that other provisions will relate to the treatment of secret reserves and a widening of the functions of auditors. Importance of verification of firms’ stock in trade by auditors was stressed by a speaker at the meeting. He referred to a company overseas which purported to have huge stocks of coal. There was one towering stack. “It looked like a mountain,” he said. A test revealed that a hillock of clay had been coated with coal “ We're getting some of that kind of coal here.” interjected one of the audience Another speaker remarked that valuation of stock in trade was one of the mest contentious matters in accountancy to-day. It was expected that the matter would receive attention in the prospective amendment of the Companies Act