54

WE, the undersigned, Commissioners of
the Waste Lands Board of the
County of Westland, in accordance with the
provisions of section 21 of the Regulations
for the sale, letting, occupation, and manage-
ment of the Waste Lands of the Crown in
the County of Westland, do hereby notify
that Tuesday, the twelfth day of April, at
noon, in the Land Office, Hokitika, is fixed
as the time and place when a sale by auction
of town, suburban, and rural lands shall take
place.

MALCOLM FRASER,
Chief Commissioner.

J. A. BONAR,
C. HOOS,
W. EVANS,
H. W. BARBOR, Receiver of Land Revenue.
Commissioners.

Land Office, Hokitika,
8th March, 1870.

REPORT OF THE ROAD BOARD
AUDITOR.

Sir—I have the honor to report for your
information that I have visited the following
Road Boards, viz., Paroa, Arahura, Ross, and
Kanieri, for the purpose of auditing the books
and accounts. These, with the exceptions I
shall mention, I have found to be correct, but
the system of keeping the books adopted by
all the offices, excepting Ross, I do not con-
sider as proper or sufficient as a means of
recording the receipts and expenditure of
public money, while at the same time the
difficulties of checking the accounts are much
increased.

To remedy this I would suggest that the
accounts of the various offices should be kept
upon one uniform system, and with your con-
currence I shall draw up the necessary forms
for the initiation of this plan, and forward
them to the several Secretaries.

I would also desire to point out to you that
in one or two instances I noticed that large
payments have been made from the Board
funds to members of the Board for work done
on account of the Board. This I consider is
against the provisions of Clause 17 of the
County of Westland Act, which expressly
forbids any members of a Road Board from
participating in anywise in any contract, or
any work in the gift or done under the
authority of the Board. I also notice that
payments have been made on vouchers which
do not bear any authority from the Chairman
of the Board or other officer appointed to
supervise the expenditure—this only applies
to the Kanieri and Okarito offices. I consider
this check very necessary, and also that each
payment should be made by cheque signed by
at least two members of the Board.

In going through the Paroa accounts I
found that several sums of eight shillings paid
weekly to the Board as rent, were not entered
in the cash book, though there were accounted
for by the secretary in the petty cash dis-
bursements. Also that the cash balance
shown in the statement, and which should
have been supported by certificate from the
bankers of the Board as being to the credit of
the Board, was at the time in the custody of
one of the members of the Board, such a
course is very irregular. Amongst the
vouchers of the Arahura Board I found one
for £17, signed across by Mr. Hannah, the
then Chairman, as having been paid by him
to the claimant. Upon making enquiries
respecting this I ascertained that the person
to whom the money was payable had refused
to sign the voucher as discharged because he
had not received the amount, Mr. Hannah
having retained some portion of it to satisfy
a private debt due to him by the payee. A
number of payments made by the Kanieri
Road Board are most irregular, the voucher
merely stating “received so much,” without
showing on what account the amount was due
or for what service the debt was incurred.

I found that, generally speaking, the
Boards exercise considerable supervision upon
the expenditure, and that in most instances
the funds at the disposal of the Boards have
been very economically disbursed, and the
office expenditure reduced as much as
possible. The liabilities of the different
Boards are, with the exception of Paroa,
very light, and consist mainly of small
accounts due for office expenditure.

The Paroa Board is heavily indebted,
principally for sums due to contractors on
public works, but the causes which led to the
embarrassment of the Board are, I think,
exceptional, and unlikely to occur again; I
allude to the great falling off in the rates,
owing to the removal of the inhabitants at
the Greenstone, &c., and to the difficulties
experienced in obtaining payment from the
Greymouth Council.

I have the honor to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
THOMAS HORTON,
Auditor for Road Boards.

C. Hoos, Esq.,
County Chairman.