The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 80a
The Working Railways Account
The Working Railways Account.
£ | |
---|---|
March 31st, 1896 | 1,182,279 |
March 31st, 1897 | 1,287,139 |
Increase | £104,860 |
£ | |
---|---|
June 30th, 1890 | 280,077 |
June 30th, 1897 | 302,641 |
Increase | £21,964 |
Voted for Salaries and Wages | £600,930 |
Voted for Stores, Rails, &c. | 177,855 |
Total Working Railways Vote | £778,785 |
1893. | 1894. | 1895. | 1896. | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Rails and Railway Material £54,941 | £42,797 | £46,988 | £32,654 | |
Telegraph Material | £6,908 | £10,480 | £18,865 | £567 |
Miles of line opened | 17 | 62 | 45 | 21 |
It is no secret that the Hawke's Bay floods caused such damage to bridges, &c., that the permanent-way officials were at their wits' end for piles and other bridge material. It seems clear that necessary stocks have dwindled till the service is below the standard of efficiency to cope with sudden calls upon it. In fact, both the Traffic and Maintenance Departments are starved. This improvidence and saving at the wrong end is conspicuous in other branches of the service, notably in the defences of the Colony, where trained artillery volunteers have to be disbanded because of having no guns. Indeed, judging by the scanty material being imported for the Telegraph Department and others, it would seem that the present Administration will leave their successors short of even pens and red tape when they vacate the Cabinet-room.
The [unclear: other] solution of the paradox is clearer. Although the Treasury accounts published on July 22nd only account for a Railway Expenditure of £97,782 for the quarter, the Railway Returns published in the Gazette of May 27th. show that £135,696 had been spent at that date. There must be something lax and deserving of reprobation when moneys expended by so highly officered a department as the Head Office of the Railways, who arc paid £40,000 a year by the State, do not furnish the Treasury with their May accounts in time for publication at the end of July, or the fault may rest with the Treasury. Moreover, the June balance-sheets show that officers in the Colony held on Imprest on June 30th no less a sum than £239,138. Can any member conscientiously call this careful administration? The Imprest system may have its advantages, but if a quarter of a million be entrusted to officials, it surely ought to be accounted for once a quarter at any rate. There is a further sum of £55,321 shown to be held by officers of the Government in London, altogether £294,459 drawn by Imprest by officials. That the power to draw money by Imprest from the Treasury is not confined to heads of departments or permanent officials was instanced recently by the finding of a telegram in a place of public resort, worded as follows:—
June 30th.
"Place £100 to credit of my imprest account at Wellington on Thursday, July 1st.J. C. McKerrow, Pahiatua."
This was countersigned, "Refer to Lands and Survey Department, R. J. Collins, June 30th," and stamped, "Received for audit, July 1st." The finder, through his solicitor, wrote to the departmental head of each Department and to the Acting-Premier, asking to be relieved of the possession of a State document, and it was claimed by the Hon. Mr McKenzie. How official documents come to be so far astray from proper custody is as curious as the fact that the sender of the telegram should be permitted to draw on the Treasury in such a peremptory fashion.
Another item in the quarterly accounts requires looking into. The Civil List for the quarter just ended shows an expenditure of £5446, as against £5308 for the same period last year. The difference is only £138, but is accentuated by the fact that during the 1897 period we had no Governor, and the Administrator only draws half the Governor's salary of £5000 and half his own of £1500. Naturally there ought to have been a saving of £812 in place of an excess of £138.
It is only just: to the Audit Department to state that the following memo is attached to the Public Accounts:—" The foregoing accounts have been examined and found correct, except as regards Customs, Railways and Territorial revenue, receipts which are not examined by the Audit Office. J. K. Warburton, Auditor and Controller-General."