A BIG BUYER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 254, 26 October 1937, Page 9

A BIG BUYER

POST OFFICE PURCHASES OVER £BOO,OOO Business people are good customers of the post office and this great State department is also a good customer for New Zealand businesses. Where it is possible, New Zealand products are bought for departmental use, and as the whole of the uniformed staff, numbering two thousand, is clad in New Zealand material, the woollen mills secure an annual order for approximately 7,500 yards of worsted cloth. This is made up in New Zealand factories into the neat blue uniforms worn by postmen, telegraph messengers, and other post office employees. A few years ago, tweed was the material, but the change was made to the slightly more expensive but harder-wearing New Zealand worsted, with satisfactory results. Waterproof clothing has also to be provided, and linemen and faultmen, whose important work must be done regardless of the severity of the weather—-they are at their best when maintaining communications threatened by storm and flood—receive a complete outfit of waterproofs every year, including a sou’wester. The proofed material has to be imported, the annual requirement being about 4000 yards, and it is all turned into clothing in New Zealand factories.

As post office service is given in every part of the Dominion, its employees experience a wide variety of climatic conditions, therefore the postmen, who are entitled to receive one complete uniform annually, may elect to take two years’ equipment in one issue, which enables them to choose both light and heavy-weight cloth. As a further adantation to the climate, they may obtain white helmets (which are particularly popular in the northern part of the Dominion) also very light tunics of Russell cord for summer wear.

The needs of a rapidly expanding business and the equally important necessity of constantly bringing expensive and ever changing electrical equipment up to date are two of the reasons why the department’s annual expenditure on engineering supplies is so impressive. An active programme of renewals and extensions involves large importations of specialised equipment and supplies not manufactured in New Zealand, and the department last year paid £21,888 in Customs duties on these importations. As a buyer, the post office figures well in th& market, for the value of the stores bought by it last year amounted to £805,624.

perform, but they also bear a responsibility towards the public, since on the faith of the certificate of an expert the investing public are induced to subscribe for shares. It is needful, therefore, to ascertain as far as possible the bona tides of all parties interested in the matter, because if the new company does not prove successful there is always the risk of legal proceedings in which the accountant may become involved. “The object of an investigation of the accounts of a concern is to arrive at the normal trading profits over a period of years, and in this connection it is necessary to draft the accounts on a uniform basis so that the results of one year can be readily compared with that of another. In examining the trading accounts it should be seen whether the ratio of gross profit is consistant or whether it is subject to much variation. In the latter case the cause of the variation should be ascertained. If it is not due to the rise or fall in the cost of materials, increase or decrease in wages or other manufacturing expenses, or variations in selling price, it will probably be found to be due to errors or inflation in the values of the stocks. The cause of any abnormal variation in the figures should be very closely looked into.”