1 62 CONSTRUCTION AND MANAGEMENT OF SMALL GASWORKS. 



If these items are as satisfactory on the 3ist December as 

 they were on the ist January, there is not much the matter. 

 The practice of showing a large profit, by charging portions 

 of repairs, renewals and depreciation to profit and loss or 

 to a reserve account is not so usual with gas undertakings 

 as with some other companies, but at the best it is disin- 

 genuous. The profit is the balance remaining after paying 

 all expenses. If the balance of net revenue is ^1,000, but 

 $o of this is required for income-tax and ^200 for 

 renewals, then the actual profit is ^750, and not ^"1,000, 

 and it is simply deceiving the shareholders if the accounts 

 are so drawn, or the statements from the chairman at the 

 shareholders' meeting so worded, as to convey the impres- 

 sion that the actual net earnings are ^"1,000. 



Working Results. 



Our examination must also extend to the working results, 

 and it will be seen that the account affords information not 

 only as to cash receipts and payments, but also as to bulk or 

 weight of material purchased or sold. A slate and a working 

 results book, such as Form XIV (p. 178), enable the daily 

 results to be checked. The meter is taken every three or 

 six hours, also the height of the holders, and the details, as 

 shown, are entered up, one line for each day. Each double 

 page records a month's operations, and quarterly or annual 

 totals can be easily arrived at. The total coal carbonized, 

 and purifying material used, should agree with the expendi- 

 ture book. (Form V 41-42.) 



Private Memoranda. 



If one asks for details such as the working life of the 

 retorts, or the number of purifiers changed in a year, they 

 are usually forthcoming but perhaps after a long search 



