ACCOUNTS IN DECIMALS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 110, 12 May 1938, Page 2

ACCOUNTS IN DECIMALS

A LEAD IN ENGLAND The increased number of advocates of the decimal system will be interested in the report of an English experiment. “For the first time in the history of local government accounting in Britain, a Borough Treasurer has issued his abstract of account in deci mals,” states The Certified Accountants Journal (London). “This enterprising officer is Mr. Edwin C. Riding. Borough Treasurer of Torquay, who, himself an enthusiastic advocate of the decimal system of the decimal system of coinage, ’believes that not many decades will pass before the antiquated method of shillings and pence will disappear,’ and that ‘if other local authorities will follow in a presentation of published accounts by the decimalised method, the public will have an opportunity of becoming faj miliar with this system.’ The simplicity and clarity of the decimal I method of presenting sterling figures. las well as its practical advantages, | are admirably illustrated in the Tor- | quay accounts. • “Even those who shale the late Lore ■ Randolph Chir.chili’b difficulty in | und-Tstau'.l ng ‘these damned dots' I will be able, with the aid of a simple 1 rule which Mr. Riding gives, to interpret with ease the amounts showr . against the various items in his accounts. The simple rule for convert- [ ing decimal figures into shillings and I pence is to divide the first two figures • after the point by 5. treating any reHmainder as farthings. For practical : purposes, however, few will have oc- • casion to do this, as where large sums i are involved it is usually necessary tc I have regard to pounds only. That, in- • I deed, is one of the reasons which led | the Borough Treasurer to employ ' i decimal figures. | “The shillings and pence columns , are not only superfluous but the? occupy valuable space, the saving ot which in the present instance has been utilised to include against the main t items of income and expenditure corresponding figures for the previous year, a useful addition which would not otherwise have been possible without increasing the size of the page. The calculations are done by machine, so that every two shillings is .1 and every penny .004. In the printed accounts the decimal figures are shown in much smaller type than the pounds figures, so that confusion ?s impossible. "Of course, in the Torquay accounts ; the decimal system has had to be i adapted to our present coinage and the figures shown, although sufficiently accurate for practical purposes, arc not the precise equivalents of the ode ' shillings and pence. For example, .001 . of a pound is not exactly one penny . For the perfect working of the decii mal system some modification of our I present coinage is necessary, though I this need not necessarily be of a ver.- | revolutionary character. Any sucl I modification would, of course, hav i to +>e effected by the Government, an: I the British Government (irrespective ;of its political composition) is no; easily moved to make innovations o such a kind. We understand, however : that the Government has, in fact, in j timated its willingness io set up ai I inquiry into the application of the ' decimal system as soon as it is demon I strated that there is a public demanc