THE CIRCUMLOCUTION OFFICE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2400, 26 November 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE CIRCUMLOCUTION OFFICE.

Hkuh is an instance of tiio circumlocution which distinguishes the present system of conducting business in the Big Buildings, Wellington. As a commentary on the Now Zealand Government account keeping, it is also not without its value. The Returning Officer for a certain electorate not a hundred miles away paid into the Bank of Now Zealand on the (ir-t day of the present month to the public account the sum of £lO, being the amount forfeited, as by statute, by one of the candidates at the late elections, who had failed to poll the required number of votes. On the L3th inst. the Returning Officer forwarded to the Colonial Secre” tary’s Department the bank receipt for the said £lO, and on the 18th instant he received • from Mr Gavin, of the Treasury, an official acknowledgement of the receipt thereof. Two clays later, or three weeks from the paying in of the money to the public account in the Bank of New Zealand, the Returning Officer received from the Comptroller and rVuditor-General a curt memorandum requesting an immediate explanation as to why he had failed to pay into the public account the identical sum of £lO, candidate’s forfeit, for which he then had a receipt in full from the Treasury ! Then the Returning Office girded up his loins and replied to the Comptroller and Auditor-General requesting him to withdraw his memo., as, in the face of the facts, it contained an insulting insinuation, besides being utterly uncalled for. And this {remarks tho Evening Press) is the way the public account keeping of the colony is dragged through the mire, and men in high places are nude to look ridiculous, simply because the authorities will not insist on tho public accounts being kept on the simple and efficient basis adopted by large private business firms.