144 CONSTRUCTION AND MANAGEMENT OF SMALL GASWORKS. 



calling for serious consideration. But he now finds himself 

 at a great disadvantage, in the absence of something more 

 than a speaking acquaintance with both. I have repeatedly 

 had reason to be thankful that my early training included a 

 few months in the office of a firm of accountants. A 

 knowledge of accounts is indispensable if one would be 

 able to accurately assess the present position and working, 

 to make a fair and correct comparison of one year's 

 working with another, to note where improvement has 

 been effected, and especially the weak places or sources 

 of leakage. Money will leak away, directly and indirectly, 

 in as inexplicable a manner as gas. If one has 

 nothing to invest on his own account, he is sure 

 to be occasionally asked for an opinion on the 

 position and prospects of a gas company, the value of 

 shares, questions relating to letting on lease, etc. ; and in 

 the absence of a knowledge underlying the printed form of 

 account, it is impossible to arrive at an accurate conclusion 

 on these matters. There is, too, generally a disposition to 

 regard a statement of accounts as a shibboleth only under- 

 standable by a professional accountant. Probably not one 

 in a hundred of the statements that are annually issued to 

 shareholders is intelligently read and understood. I have 

 known managers and directors, and even chairmen of gas 

 companies, whose ideas respecting the statement of accounts 

 were hazy and indefinite, and comprised not much beyond 

 a knowledge of where to find the balance available for 

 dividend. 



I do not propose to attempt anything in the way of a 

 complete system of bookkeeping and accounts, because 

 there are excellent books and treatises specially devoted to 

 the subject, but to follow up the matter on the lines of 

 previous chapters, assuming that the reader is already 



