8.—17.

MEMORANDUM BY AUDIT DEPARTMENT. Explanation of Difference between Receipts for Fees, &c., shown on Attached Statement and Total Receipts as per Treasury Books.

The Valuer-General. The statement is required to show, in terms of section 19 of the Act, " all moneys -received and expended under this Act " —-neither more or less. The moneys received are received into the Public Account, and the moneys expended are expended out of that account. The statement should not, therefore, comprise moneys received by the Post Office which had not been received by the Treasury. You will no doubt amend the statement accordingly. J. K. Wakbukton, 17th June, 1902. Controller and Auditor-General.

Valuation Department, Wellington, 20th June, 1902. Memorandum for the Controller and Auditor-General. The amounts received by this Department include payments by the several local authorities who have been debited with a certain sum as the cost of revising or correcting their valuation-rolls, or performing some other service in connection with valuation, and it is necessary that these payments should be credited in the various accounts. These payments are made to the nearest post-office or direct to this office, the latter going direct into the Public Account. The receipts at post-offices, however, reach the Public Account in large sums of £20,000, £25,000, or £50,000, comprising collections of land-tax, income-tax, valuation revenue, and other moneys. The amounts we are advised as having been collected by the Post Office are credited to individual accounts, whether they be taxpayers or local authorities ; but the large sums mentioned do not pretend to be the exact sum collected to a particular date, or in particular localities, or for particular accounts. It would therefore be a matter of impossibility to balance our books if we are only to take the sums paid by the Post Office to Public Account in conjunction with those received here and paid in direct. It seems to me that we must account for all the moneys received and upon which our books are balanced. I would therefore like the Audit Office to consider the matter further, because I have some hesitation in signing a cash statement which does not show the whole of the moneys received, whether they are contained in the Post Office Account or the Public Account, or partly in both. John McGowan, Valuer-General.

The Valuer-General. The statement which the statute requires, being one of moneys received into and expended out of the Public Account, cannot include any but the moneys so received and expended. To include them, indeed, makes the statement untrue. It will, however, overcome any hesitation if to the heading to the statement the words "of the Public Account" are added. And if a statement showing the moneys received by the Post Office in addition to those received by the Public Account, such a statement could be given independently. It could be made below the Audit ■Office certificate to the statutory statement. J. K. Waeburton, 23rd June, 1902. Controller and Auditor-General.

2

Statement. Treasury Books. £ s. d. Fees .., ... ... 2,913 3 8 Contributions from local authorities ... ... 4,040 7 2 Government Advances to Settlers Office ... ... 2,500 0 0 Land-tax Department ... 9,682 8 0 Collected at — Head Office Post Office Transfers ... £ 5,244 2,960 11,071 s. d. 5 9 0 0 0 0 19,135 18 10 Add balance in Post Office, 31st March, 1901... ... 259 13 4 19,395 12 2 Less balance in Post Office, 31st March, 1902... ... 140 15 7 19,254 16 7 Add amount shown in Treasury books as revenue which should have been credited to recoveries ... ... ... 0 10 0 £19,255 6 7 £19,255 6 7 Recoveries ... ... £2,642 14 6 £2,642 14 6 £2,642 ' 4 6