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The appointment of a Committee at the commencement 

 of the year, to check and examine the accounts o he 

 current year, and the subsequent appomtment ot the 

 members of that Committee as auditors, have been found 

 eminently useful, by affording ample time for such examm- 

 ation, without pressing inconveniently upon the auditors as 

 formerly. The labour of the audit is also greatly reduced by 

 the simplicity of the system of accounts now in operation 



Since the audit of last year, the plan of the monthly 

 finance statement has been materially enlarged It now 

 contains not only the receipts and payments of each month 

 but the total amount received, and the total amount paid, 

 up to the end of every month of the current year ; and the 

 annual statement at the end of the year contains the total 

 amount of every head of income received in the year, and 

 the total of arrears received, as well as of those due to the 

 Society, specifying for what years, and distingmshmg the 

 total amount received and remaining due for past years, from 

 the total due for the current year. After this plan has 

 been in operation two or three years, it will furnish the 

 means of judging whether a reasonable proportion of he 

 arrears is received in any given time (it being part of the 

 monthly as well as the annual statement), or whether in- 

 treased exertions should not be used to collect them. The 

 annual statement of the expenditure shows also, besides 

 the sums actually paid, the amount remaining unpaid on 

 each head of expenditure at the end of the year ; and also 

 the sum total paid and unpaid. By these means the actual 

 expenditure incurred in each year, whether paid in the 

 year or not, is exactly ascertained; not only the aggregate, 

 but the amount of every subordinate head of each of the 

 four principal accounts : viz., Farm, Garden, Museum, and 

 General Establishment; and the expenditure of each year 

 is kept distinct by itself, unconnected with the payments 

 on account of any preceding year. These particulars have 

 been extracted from the reports of auditors, and other 

 sources, in the most accurate manner that the imperfect 



