[J K. WABBUETON

18

I. —11.

of audit after payment as affording better security for the care and proper application oi the public monevthar the system of audit before payment; and, as to the Public Revenues Amendment Bill of which a copy has been supplied for our information, we think that it would be better or the purposes of the system of audit after payment rather to reconstruct the Public Revenues Act or such purpose than to amend the present Act, constructed for the system of audit before paymen If the Minister should decide to give effect to this suggestion, advantage might be taken oTthe opportunity thus afforded for amending the law in the direction of making it possible that the colKon of revenue and direct payment of expenditure might, if so desired be made through h medlm of the Post Office, or through any other Department, under relation, be made under the authority of the Governor in Council.—T K. Warbuuton, R. J. Collins, W R. Morris. S l?M«r, in New Zealand: (1 ) The Treasury to issue money by way of imprest only to the Treasury Cashier, the Post Office, and the Railway Department, and to issue 1t on application hi the same manner as at present. (2 Out of the moneys so ,ssued by the Post Office and Treasury Cashier, any special advance approved by the Treasury on the application of an officer •enuS it to be made on a credit note provided by the Treasury and presented by such officer 3 ) All payments in Wellington out of moneys issued by way of imprest except payments for ertice of Tβ Post Office and Railway Departments, and. the payments for which the special advances out of such moneys may be used, shall be made only by the Treasury Cashier (4.) All il-mnteout of imprest irLeys'elsewhere than in Wellington, fo, which no special advances are made except those out of imprest moneys issued to the Railway. Department, to be made at the Offic! mone y !order office at which they can most conveniently be made,, and on the certificate ri Seer tbe notified by the Treasury to the.Post Office. <5.) The Treasury, on the recexpt of the application for a special advance, to furnish the. officer to whom the advance is to be made with a oS note which would enable him to obtain from any Post. Office money-order office, or ,m the Treasury Cashier, sums to the amount limited, and within ft e such note- and the officer to account direct to the Treasury or to the Post Office as the Treasury may direct, for the money obtained on such credit note. (6.). In any case an which it may-be impracticable or inexpedient for a Postal Officer to take from the payees themselves receipts for the payb made by a Postmaster out of moneys imprested to the Post Office, he may employ to tike such receipts 'and supply with the necessary money the paying officer authorized .bj the Treasury taking hi receipt to account for the money pending the production of the receipted vouchers for it '' That letter, with the enclosure, was sent to me in reply by, yourself and the & Md v issued to an officer instea d of Yes. thc amount fehat the imp tas n mit ed to entirely It imposed to prevent irregularities, but, as the Treasury noticed any -™J-J ; and the Audit Office too, that would prevent the use of more money .than as a gene, al lule the impresteTrequS, and the result would be that probably.some hundred thousand pounds or more would lie at the credit of the Public Account at the Bank, instead of in the pockets or hands of no w?-There has been occasionally out on imprest an amount of £500 000—money in the hands of imprestees or to the credit of imprestees 56 Not in ene um?-No; aggregated sums for the Dominion out of the Public Account. Under the other system, which is a system, half at least of.that sum might remain Wnt^%VH 6 rSi 1 t point you are referring to, Mr Warburton, about the being possible, that an amount beyond the .actual r S quireme.rts of the imprestee may be avaTled of by him, under the existing, imprest system he contrplsthe ful amount f-Yee,. He could do so in both cases but it would be an irregularity contrary to instructions in one t is under any system to prevent irregularities ,_ there must be irregularities I might say in all businesses, and- the Public Revenues-Act is, I might say, designed with a view not to COm f- tHe Govern menC-those notes-would be transferred immediately by the Postmaster to the Head Office?-You Postmasters would send up the receipts which they received from the Spi: for'\E moneys which the imprestees got *-- Post jhey would be sent to the Treasury and be charged to the imprestees and credited to the Post Office. 60 In other words, under the present' system the imprestee can draw cheques upon his Imprest Account and he need not return the receipted vouchers until he has expended the whole of his imprest'or until he has returned to Wellington?— Yes, that is so. imprest or notes, from the point of view of more frequent check, is better than the present systemV-Yee j it brings up the payments out of the money issued on imprest at 0nC6 62 So that the proposed credit-note system is a more effective check as against the imprestee by the Audit Department and by the Treasury bothJ-Yes, I think it would be a more effective check The Post Office would require the vouchers.at once, and the Treasury would get an early See from the Post Office in the receipt of the imprestee for .a certain sum of money for imme- ■ 'diate and that expenditure, Of course, would-be under t-he eyes of the Treasury, and the vouchers would be called for