The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 1901.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 3625, 22 August 1901, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 1901.

We yesterday referred to the alterations' made in the Companies Act Amendment Bill by the Joint Revision of Statutes Committee, but there was in that article no allusion to an important clause which Sir Joseph Ward has announced that he intends to move in regard to the audit of the accounts of companies. His threatened motion is that such accounts shall be audited by the Government Auditor. Experience has proved that increased safeguards in respect of the audit of companies' accounts are required in the interests of the investing public, but it does not follow that Sir Joseph Ward's proposal would meet the case, and there are substantial reasons why his amendment should not be adopted. We notice that on Tuesday last, at a meeting of the Dunedin branch of the Incorporated Institutes of Accountants of New Zealand, the following resolutions were adopted:— "That this meeting of the Dunedin Fellows and Associates of the Incorporated Institutes of Accountants of New Zealand strongly objects to Clause 25 of the Companies Bill now before Parliament, providing for the appointment of the official assignee as the State and official liquidator of all companies wound up by the court, and especially to the further amendments proposed by Sir Joseph Ward, providing for the auditing of the accounts of all companies by the Government Auditor. It does so (1) because of the great injustice that would be caused to the practising public accountants of the colony who have qualified in their profession by years of experience and by examination, and whose business and living would be taken away; (2) because the proposal as to audits would take from mercantile and other companies' the freedom of selection they at present enjoy; (3) because of the enormous increase that would be required in the Department to overtake the work throughout the colony; (4) because, in the absence of a recognised qualification gn the part of the officers of the Audit Department, it is reasonable to suppose that, although doubtless capable officials, they have not the experience of mercantile affairs necessary to qualify them for the work required." The position taken up by the Institutes of Accountants is clearly a very strong one. There can be no doubt that | every one of the members thoroughly uni derstands his profession, that is to say, if stiff examinations may be ..regarded as a true test of efficiency. The standing of the Incorporated Accountants of New Zealand is also excellent for other reasons. They are affiliated to similar societies in Australia, and have shown themselves to be trustworthy. Bad audits, and possibly corrupt ones, might be mentioned as having taken place in New Zealand even in recent years, but we do not believe that Sir Joseph Ward would be able to show that members of the Incorporated Accountants of New Zealand have in any case been responsible for such neglect or graver' wrong : doing. Why should the bread be taken out of the J mouths of these men who have served the public well, and many of whom would be wiped out of existence if Sir Joseph Ward's proposal were given effect to? Again, is it desirable that the Government Audit Department should be subjected to the enormous expansion which the proposed change would necessitate? We should soy decidedly not. In all conscience the country already has enough and too much of State officialdom. One of the chief vices of the present Government is their craving to concentrate all authority in their own hands or in the hands of their subordinates, and this attempt to

seize an the business .of auditing is anothei' instance in point. The mercantile .community will certainly, be opposed to Sir Joseph Ward's proposal, and we are inclined to think that the outside pressure will prove too strong to enable him to carry it.

In another column will be found a short letter from Mr C. N. Macintosh in reference to a paragraph in our report of the meeting of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board on Tuesday last. He does not state that the report was inaccurate, but says that " the public on reading it may unjustly blame the undertakers in re the burial of Mrs Krenzel." On turning to the report we find that at the meeting of the Board Mr Macintosh mentioned that members of the Coroner's jury at the inquest on the body of Mrs Krenzel, who had been found dead in her chair, had informed him "that the body was laid on the floor by the police, and covered with a bit of scrim, though there was a bed*with bedding in the house; and that the undertaker had put the body into the coffin just as it was, unwashed and unkempt, and had taken it away to the cemetery." These facts have not been denied, but Mr Macintosh now writes to exonerate the undertakers, and, as far as we can judge, he succeeds in doing so. Turning : to the report again, we find that, after Mr Macintosh had made his statement, " the secretary explained that the; deceased was not in receipt of charitable aid, and, acting upon the instructions'' of the Board, all that he did, when the police telephoned to him about the funeral, was to refer them to the Board's contractor for funerals." It is clear that if the undertakers carried out their burial contract they are not to blame. We have every reason to believe that they did carry out their contract, and it would be quite unreasonable to expect any more from them. But that is not the last word on the subject. The corpse of this poor old lady was evidently treated with a measure of disrespect for which someone ought to be responsible. None of her friends, if she had any, came forward .to give her decent burial j she left no money; and thus the funeral, as a matter of course, devolved on the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board. The police have no funds to devote to such a purpose, and they took the only course that was open to them. They communicated with the charitable aid authorities. The latter did not repudiate the liability, but the question is whether what was done was enough under the circumstances. Doubtless it was enough as far as the final result was concerned. The body was buried, and there would have been an end of the matter if the complaint of some members of the Coroner's jury had not reached Mr Macintosh. Our report of the incident at the Board's meeting concludes as follows:—"A discussion took place on the question of the Board's liability in such cases, and it was decided to inquire what the practice of other Charitable Aid Boards is." It seems to us,'that it was scarcely necessary to apply for information in other parts of the colony, unless, indeed, the- Board intend to question their liability altogether. We should have thought that the most reasonable course to pursue would have been to instruct the secretary that, in similar cases in the future, he should ascertain whether friends are seeing to the proper and necessary preliminaries to Christian burial, and if they are not that he should instruct the undertakers to attend to such matters, simply and economically, but with all due decency. The strain upon the Board's finance would not be very severe; probably only a few shillings in the course of a twelve-month, and then the public would not be made uncomfortable by such occurrences as those to which we have referred. .