HIBERNIAN-AUSTRALASIAN CATHOLIC BENEFIT SOCIETY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 128, 15 October 1875, Page 12

HIBERNIAN-AUSTRALASIAN CATHOLIC BENEFIT SOCIETY.

H.A..C.8. Society. — We have been requested to publish the following paragraph which appe&red in the Melbourne 'Advocate' of Saturday, September 25, 1875, signed "Tapley" :—"I: — "I learn that the accounts of the Hibernian Society are not in a very satisfactory state. At the annual meeting held last March, no balance-sheet was submitted, and at thehalf -yearly meeting, held the other day, the balancesheet was sent back for correction. This is not a very creditable state of things for the executive body of such a society, more e-pecially as I learn that a good round sum was paid to a professional man to write up the books. If the officers of this bo ly are incapable of preparing a proper balancc-slieet, they should consider whether they are justified in receiving the moneys of the members." — The Auditor's reply is as follows : "To the Editor of the 'Advocate." Dear Sir, — Your valued contributor, the occupant of the Easy Chair, has been cruelly hoaxed by the wily informant from whom he learnt ' that the accounts of the Hibernian Society are not in a very satisfactory sta'e, and that at the half -yearly meeting held the other day the "balance-sheet was sent back for correction.' I may, through the medium of your valuable journal "foe permitted to allay, if possible, any feeling of uneasiness that may have arisen in the mind of the ' occupant of the before specified piece of furniture,' by stating that after a careful and searching scrutiny of the accounts of the Hibernian Society for the past half-year, I find them in an eminently satisfactory condition, and may further inform your contributor that at the half-yearly meeting the balance-sheet was not referred back for correction, but for the purpose of having it rewritten in a simpler form than that given to it by the professional Auditor to whom he refers as having been the recipient of 'a good round sum.' In a spirit of mild remonstrance "Tapley " advises the officers of the Hibernian Society ' to consider whether they are justified in receiving the money of members if they are incapable of preparmg a proper balance-sheet.' The balance-sheet, now produced, is a sufficient comment on this. Might I, Sir, in conclusion, and in the same gentle spirit of gentle admonition, submit to the namesake of the immortal ' Mark/ of happy memory, that he should, before wielding his powerful pen on a subject with which he is obviously unacquainted, satisfy himself that the source from which he derives his inspiration is a reliable one. Trusting you will find space for this, I am, your obedient servant, M. Larkin, one of the Auditors of the H.A.C.8.5." — " I concur with the above in every particular. — John Butler, Melbourne, September 28, 1875."