Truth THE NATIONAL PAPER THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1928. All Trust Accounts Should Be Audited

NZ Truth, Issue 1203, 20 December 1928, Page 6

Truth THE NATIONAL PAPER THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1928. All Trust Accounts Should Be Audited

THERE is an old text-book proverb concerning the bolting of stable doors when the horse is gone ; one, moreover, which has a penetrating application to many, or practically all forms and degrees of humanitj^. Humankind is too apt to accept a circumstance because its outward embroidery is attractive; too great a trust is vested m face values, and despite the myriad examples of duplicity, the public faith rarely is fractured to any permanent degree of discomfiture. . In the face of illustrations concerning professional men who, acting m some fiduciary capacity, have filched the savings of those whose faith was more acute' than their judgment; the community retains an attitude of comparative indifference. Within limited bounds,' the questionable operations of certain J prof essional men are limited by periodic auditing, but no such restriction is placed upon land agents and their methods of keeping trust accounts. , Recently, a Wellington land agent named Mclntyre was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for stealing over £300, represented by deposits made on

behalf of purchasers of property, but his misdemeanors were not 'detected until his clients interviewed the police. If the trust accounts of legal firms are subjected to the watchful processes of auditing, why should land agents be exempt ? A regulation providing for the audit of land agents' trust accounts was brought into effect m April of this year, but for some obscure reason the proposal lapsed, because, so it is declared m some quarters, a few of the major firms are not m favor of audited trust accounts. Not, it must be understood, because of failing integrity, but rather because they are reputed to invest deposit moneys, in' sound securities, and work their own businesses on bank overdrafts, the difference m interest representing an appreciable perquisite at the close of the year. Naturally, that would not be lost without a struggle. Whether or not that is the true reason for the bill lapsing is not the point. The more apt reasoning is that members of the new Government should insist upon the enforcement of a systematic scrutiny of trust accounts kept by land agents.