18S1.] Annual Beport. t 23 



Finance. 



The accounts, which will be found in the Appendix, are issued for the 

 first time in a new form. While less voluminous they will be found more 

 complete, as they include the value of the Stock, and show in Statement 

 No. 4 the outstandings, how these have originated, and whether due 

 vigilance has been exercised in getting them in. 



It will be seen that the Government grants are not only distinctly 

 accounted for, as required by Government, but they form a portion of a 

 general account. As the Society is strictly liable for these funds, no 

 account of the Society's affairs, proper, could be complete without the 

 incorporation of its liabilities on account of these grants ; and if the Society 

 had mismanaged these grants, the fact, that the accounts of them were 

 kept absolutely distinct from those of the Society, would not in any way 

 absolve the Society from its responsibility to Government. 



The previous system of keeping an absolutely separate account of each 

 grant and one of the Society's affairs was therefore unnecessary and 

 cumbersome ; Statements 4, 7, and 8 are general and state the Society's 

 affairs completely. 



The establishment employed, an Accountant and a Cashier, has been 

 reduced to one man only, whereby a saving of about E-s. 30 a month has been 

 effected. The large Cash balance formerly kept has been reduced by the 

 surplus being invested ; this has increased the Society's income, at 

 present, by about 450 Rupees a year. The rules prescribe that the invest- 

 ments be kept in two separate funds termed a permanent and a temporary 

 fund. Admission and commutation fees were kept in a separate bank 

 account, and the rules prescribe they be invested as soon as possible after 

 receipt thereof. Trust funds were also kept in separate bank accounts, 

 and the servants' pension fund separately invested. 



This complicated way of dealing with these matters is quite un- 

 necessary with complete accounts, and it has the serious objection of intro- 

 ducing complications which hinder clear statements and proper checking of 

 the accounts. Nor does this complication afford any additional security 

 or other advantage. All that is necessary is to keep the Cash balance 

 as low and the investments as high as possible, raise the amount prescrib- 

 ed as a permanent reserve fund as deemed desirable, and if it be desired 

 that commutation and admission fees be added to the permanent reserve, the 

 Council may annually increase the permanent reserve by at least the amount 

 received during the year under these heads. The complete adoption of these 

 suggestions would require some modification of rules 67, G8, 09 and 70. 

 (For the annual accounts, see Appendix,) 



