RAILWAY BOOKKEEPING.

Shannon News, 2 March 1923, Page 3

RAILWAY BOOKKEEPING.

WONDERS OF, THE SYSTEM

“Systemaniac” writes in the Auckland Herald: The. many strictures and criticisms that have lately appeared in your columns anent the general ar rangement 7 s , and management of the Government'railways may be..'.entirely warranted," and there is, without doubt, room, for considerable improvement. But we must give credit where such is >merited, and I maintain that there is probably no othpr railway in the wroild which has such an efficient and well-organised system of bookkeeping. TJhe ■ system goes by the name of the double account cross entry system, and owes its inception to sorite obscure genius, who probably has not yet got, nor will ever get, his desserts. I will give an example. Having in ‘some way purchased a wrong ticket for 2/3, I requested a • .* e- ■ fund, as The fault appeared to be with ! the ticket-office clerk. It seemed to my 1 commonplace intelligence that all that was necessary foy the. clerk to; do would be to pay me . the 2/3, cancel the ticket, and hold same as a receipt for the transaction. But this method, I have since found, is not a satisfac-

'lory system. It was, necessary to apply in writing for a refund, I was! told. I did so, fully detailing the • ircuinstances. At the end of three, weeks. I received a letter from the Auckland staiionmfister" requesting me to call at the office. I did so, and after being shuttle-cocked about the station for'a brief half-hour and producing the letter to many clerks, teket officers, porters, engine-cleaners, lamp-trimmers, -I found a man sufficiently acquainted with the mysteries of railway management to direct-me to the right office. I fell on his neck and shed tears. I then entered the office in friumph, and produced my precious letter to the dignified official who presided. He at once ’Went, to the top right-hand pigeon hole on the left and extracted a bundle of papers, which I. Imagined to represent the week’s doings in the ticket refund line. But ro. This collection of documents, torn and dirtied, repaired and renewed, signed and counter-signed by everyone from the manager down to the office-boy and up again to the Minister, earmarked, noted and initialled, red and blue pencilled, covered and carefully fastened together with a skewer, which in its infancy was a. raildog (an example of economy), all, yes, I say all, referred to the one and' solitary transaction which I have detailed above. Is this not the triumph of system, the very height of organisation, when collection of many papers could go through all those hands and return to the original office within three weeks without one single paper being lost? To conclude, I collected the 2/3 and stumbled out of the office and spent the whole sum just around the corner in a desperate endeavour to sufficiently restore my lagging energies to enable me to return to my office.