5

B.—l [Pt. ll].

'Native Department. 15. Harold John Salmond, Accountant, Aotea District Maori Land Board, Wanganui: Theft of £333 13s. lid. Was sentenced to fifteen months' hard labour. Official Assignee's Office. 16. F. G. Emeny, temporarily employed in the Official Assignee's Office, Wellington : Theft of the sum of £88 lis. 3d. belonging to certain bankrupt estates. Prosecuted and was sentenced to six mouths' imprisonment. War Funds Office. 17. Misappropriation of £7 from War Funds Office. Amount refunded. Accused admitted on probation for a period of twelve months. Losses, Deficiencies, Debts irrecoverable, etc., to be written off. The Audit Office submits a schedule of losses or deficiencies in cash, stores, or supply for which parliamentary authority will be required before such can be written off. The total amount is £26,283 14s. 9d. The reason for writing off is self-explanatory, the only items requiring special attention being the following : — Deficiency in stores in Chalmers Military Hospital (owing to intermixture of ie s. d. military and civil equipment, losses by theft and breakages) .. .. 612 8 2 Deficiency in respect of equipment and stores at the Auckland Military Hospital to the value of .. .. .. . . . . .. 2,322 5 3 (The Crown Solicitor advised that the responsibility could not be placed on the Auckland Hospital Board alone, and that legal proceedings could not be taken against that Board for recovery of the sum. Neither the Hospital Board nor the Defence Department appear to have taken any steps to check the equipment supplied or taken away from the hospital.) Equipment stolen from Queen Mary's Hospital, Hanmer (losses occurred through patients taking underclothing away, and the checking-system being faulty) .. .. .. .. . . .. .. 217 15 10 Advances, &c, under Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act (debtors, deceased, left New Zealand, or unfinancial) .. .. .. .. .. 10,513 18 10 Charter s.s. " Tutanekai " (amount outstanding against the Southern Isles Exploitation Company. Company gone into liquidation. No likelihood of unsecured creditors receiving any money) . . . . . . 1, 174 10 7 Repatriation : Balance of loans, &c, outstanding and irrecoverable, grantees having died or left the country, &c. .. .. .. .. 3,875 7 5 Value of Defence stores destroyed, lost, &c, during period 18th October, 1919, to 19th October, 1920 .. .. .. .. .. .. 4,570 13 9 Clothing and personal equipment, £2,247 12s. 7d. ; hospital clothing and bedding, £441 19s. Bd. ; arms and accoutrements, £34 3s. 2d. ; camp equipment, £169 10s. Id. ; barrack and hospital equipment, £938 13s. Id. ; general equipment, £119 10s. 3d. ; store losses epidemic, £22 os. 4d. ; vocational stores, £595 Is. 6d. ; electric-light stores, £2 3s. Id. War Expenses Account. The examination of the War Expenses Account has been conducted concurrently with the expenditure from the account. As this account will soon bo completed it may be interesting to give a few details :— Pre-audit and post-audit and transfer vouchers : 24,102 passed during the period. Difference of Now Zealand and Imperial pay and gratuities : 591 claims passed during period, and a total of 1,637 up to and including the 31st March, 1921. Retrospective camp pay : 15,380 claims dealt with during the period, making a total of 29,837 to the 31st March. Gratuities : The total number of gratuities passed to date is 94,183. Retrospective allowances to soldiers' dependants : The cases dealt with during the twelve months to the 31st March numbered 6,296, bringing the grand total to that date to 15,656. The final clearing of this work may be best indicated by the staff fluctuations : 16th February, 1920, total employed," 85 ; 31st March, 1920, 31 ; 31st March, 1921, 16 ; 31st July, 1921, 2. There are still left for completion approximately 400 retrospective allowances, 350 gratuities, and a small amount of work in some 3,000 ledger accounts. It is estimated by the Administration that it will take six months to dispose of this work. The expenditure on account of war expenses for the year, not taking into consideration repatriation, expenses of raising loans, or remittances, was £2,498,315. Against this a recovery of £615,279 was made on account of expenditure of previous years, leaving a net expenditure for the year of £1,883,036, including gratuities, £742,829 ; pay and allowances, £460,697 ; transport, £452,820 ; making the total expenditure from 1914 to the 31st March, 1921, with the same exclusions as above, £75,851,123, including gratuities, £5,660,467 ; pay and allowances, £30,990,207 ; and transport £8,360,439.