CARNIVAL FUNDS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2635, 4 December 1915, Page 7

CARNIVAL FUNDS

MISSING BALANCE-SHEETS REPLY FROM PATRIOTIC SOCIETY The secretary of -tlio Wellington Patriotio Society (Mr. J. Lewis) yesterday supplied to a reporter the following correspondence which has taken place between,him and the Under-Secre-tary of Internal Affairs (Mr. J. Hislop) in relation to the balance-sheets of patriotic queen committees of the recent Carnival. The letter from Mr. Hislop is as follows:— . : 'Sir,—lt :s a matter of common knowledge, as stated in the Press, that certain muds collected for patriotic purposes m connection with the recent \ v eiling ton Carnival have not been handed over by the committees in charge thereof, the' most recent statement in connection therewith being that four' Queen Carnival Committees had not transmitted the moneys in their possession. As itKis very unreasonable 'that moneys should remain for so long a period uninvested,- and therefore unproductive, I am directed by the Minister of Internal Affairs, in. his capacitv as chairman of the. National AVar Funds Council, to request you to furnish i.iie with the names of the president, .secretary, and treasurer of each committee concerned, together with particulars of the moneys received by them but not yet accounted for. Kindly let me have this information at the earliest possible moment." To this letter, under date December 2, Mr. Lewis sent the following replyr . "Dear sir,—l have to acknowledge receipt of your favour of'the 29th ultimo, which reached mo on the Ist instant, on my return from Christchurch. In re■ply, I beg to state that I am unaware that the Press has made the statements alleged in your letter, and would add that such statements are quite -contrary to fact. The writer is under the impression that- all the committees have'paid ,in to his society, per medium of himself or of the hon.. treasurer, all moneys held by sucli committees as a. result of the recent Carnival.

"The point of issue lies between the society and two of the Queon Committhe difficulty being the non-pro-duction of audited balance-sheets. The names of the officials concerned will ,bo supplied l .to you immediately, should you so desire. I sliall be glad if you • will be kind enough to correct the alleged statement of the' Press, to the effect that certain committees are still retaining moneys which should have been paid in some time ago to my-society, as this is a misstatement calculated to prejudice the public, and thereby hinder any future operations of my or any other society, in the direction of' providing for the dependents of our New Zealand soldiers and sailors. I would state, in conclusion,- that'any information that you may desire is at any time completely at your disposal." > Further Letter from the Under-Secre-tary. In reply to Mr. Lewis's letter, the Under-Secretary for Internal Affairs has sent the following communication, dated December 3 I have the,honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 2nd instant, in reply to mine of the 29th'ultimo and [ regret that your reply does not contain the information asked for. In my letter I requested you to furnish me ivitli the names of the president, secretory, and treasurer of each committee concerned in the recent carnival, together with particulars of the moneys received by them but not yet accounted for. 1 am directed to. remind you that largely in consequence of your letter to the "Evening Post" of Friday, Novemr ber 12, I communicated with you by .telephone, requesting particulars as to the Queen Carnival committees referred' to by you in that letter. To this yoir replied, promising that the information asked for would be furnished by letter 'that evening. This did not reach me as intimated, and, after waiting until the 29th ultimo, I forwarded She"letter which you have published in the Press to-day. It must be a matter for regret that there has been this delay in supplying the information asked for by the Government. In your communication of "November 12 to the "Evening Post" you yourself made the following state-, ments,.

"At date of writing, we have received three balancc-shcets 1 two of which bore the auditor's certificate; the third, being unaudited, was returned for completion. The remaining twelve committees hsvo been requested not once, but have been written to, telephoned to, and waited upon for the promised document, and on each occasion we have been promised possession of the necessary papers within a few hours, yet the position now is as stated above.

"The action I am now about to take is to place an advertisement in the local Press advising all committees that, unless I am iD possession of the certified documents within three days of date of notice, it is my intention to issue and publish a list of the defaulting committees, together with an audited state-

menfc of receipts and payments of our own accounts."

It- is hardly necessary to point edit that when the above appeared over your signature as honorary secretary of tlie New Zealand Patriotic Society, Wellington Branch, a considerable doubt was created, not only in the public mind, but nls'j in the minds of the Jii'iistcr and of the responsible officials of this Department. While asserting in the letter referred to that two audited balance-sheets had been received and a third (unaudited) had been returned for completion, and that the remaining ■ twelve had forwarded 119 balance-sheet to you, you did not state that any of these several committees had paid over to the funds the moneys collected by them. On the other hand, you declared your intention of advertising in the Press-that unless within three days the committees handed you certified documents you "would issue and publish a list of the defaulting committees" and, further, that you would issue and publish an audited statement of receipts and' payments of your own accounts. It will thus be seen that you yourself referred to the committees as "defaulting committees." The Minister is not aware that either of the promises contained in tliis paragraph has been given effect to, as there has been no statement published of'what you describe as the ."defaulting committees," nor an audited statement of the receipts and payments of the accounts of the society of which yo.i are honorary secretary. ' - ... ..

With regard to the criticism; in the Press, 1 need only draw your'attention to the leading article published by the "Evening Post" on the day your letter of November 12 appeared, and to the leading article in The Dominion of AVednesday last. The "Evening Post" spoke of the Carnival Queen Committees . with two or three exceptions as having been "deplorably and The Dominion stated that "the public are still waiting for the official, balancesheet. The long delay that has taken place in producing it is quite inexcusable."

I . have now stated sufficient to indicate why tlte Minister in charge of the War Funds' Act lias been led to draw attention to tlie present unsatisfactory position.

In your letter "yon draw, a distinction between payments to the fund and the audited balance-sheet. Until the bal-ance-sheet is audited and certified to, it is, difficult to see what guarantee there is to the public, v subscribed the funds raised, that the whole of the 1 moneys has been handed over to 1 the executive; 1 and l hereiii lies the crux of the question. ' ' In respect to the closing paragraph of your letter, in whic.i you suggest that the remarks in the Press are calculated to prejudice the public, and ■ thereby hinder future operations » of patriotic societies, I air. .directed to draw your attention to the fact that the carnival took place in Wellington during the 4nonth of June, and it has surely been possible since thc-i for the accounts to be prepared and audited. The public will, not unnaturally, hold the opinion that these accounts could and should have been made up long before this, and an audited and certified statement thereof published, /