OFFICE WORK OF A GARRISON BATTERY, 
57 
or not withdrawing .clothing, losses of belts not charged, damage to 
accoutrements not charged, etc. 
93. The vagueness and frequent alterations of the Pay Regulations 
are a constant source of trouble and loss, as is also the total practical 
removal of pecuniary responsibility from Paymasters. It Avould seem 
only right that, if the issue of any alloAvance is once passed and 
approved by the Paymaster, the appointed agent of the Government, 
any subsequent decision of the War Office should not affect the Major ; 
and the amount disallowed should only be returned if it can be recovered 
from the recipient. It is practically impossible for the Major to refuse 
to pay any allowance declared by a Paymaster to be due to a man about 
to be discharged, but under the present system he may, a year after¬ 
wards, have to himself pay the sum on some fresh 'War Office decision. 
94. As for losses by dishonesty or fraud, there are numberless Avays 
in which the Major can lie cheated if he does not retain the actual 
control of the cash. Diminishing; the real amount of savings bank 
deposits, or increasing that of the withdrawals (not in the men’s 
account books, but in the Pay List and Form No. 2), selling necessaries 
or clothing without crediting the charge, increasing the amount charged 
for tradesmen’s bills beyond the real sum, are instances, besides the 
manner in which Government, or the estates of deceased soldiers, may 
suffer from false entries of tradesmen’s bills or other items in the 
accounts of men deceased or deserted. Almost all these cases of fraud 
are stopped by the Major retaining the real practical control of the cash : 
his doing so remoA r es the object of altering figures, or concocting 
charges : Avliile no checking or auditing can prevent fraud on the part of 
the person having the practical disposal of the cash. Discovery will, 
it is true, in most of these cases, eventually take place; but in the 
meantime large sums may be lost. For example, let us take the case of 
a battery in which three pounds worth of clothing or necessaries have 
been sold, and the amount recovered from the men; but, by error or 
design, not credited in the Pay List. If the Major has a proper hold 
on the cash it remains in his hands; and on striking his next balance 
sheet he finds himself suddenly three pounds in excess of his proper 
credit, and knows some error has been committed. If, however, the Major 
is careless of the cash, a dishonest Pay-Sergeant has only to manufacture 
a corresponding charge in his cash account; the balance sheet gives 
no sign, and the fraud would remain undetected for perhaps a year. 
1 f the Avhole of the money that is spent in paying the Artillery Avere added 
up, all the avowed payments to clerks, and all the losses, a A r ery large 
amount would be readied, a great part of which could be saved by a 
simple system of accounts, quick audits, plain regulations reprinted 
annually, granting batteries proper safes, and, above all, by proper care 
of the cash. 
95. There is naturally • a strong wish among many officers for the 
introduction of some system Avhich Avould give them perfect security in 
their financial trgnsactiops. There is one system, partly adopted in the 
