A Comprehensive Service.

The gross annual revenue of the New Zealand Railways amounts in normal times to over eight £ millions, expenditure to over six £ millions, and capital expenditure to from one to two £ millions. A considerable volume of work for other Government Departments and private parties is also undertaken. The accounting for all this is controlled in the Chief Accountant's Office of the Department.

During the past few years probably no branch of the Railway. Service has been called on to meet a greater number of variations in, and departures from, long established practice than the Finance and Accounts Branch, usually known as the Chief Accountant's Office. The manner in which all difficulties have been surmounted speaks volumes for the soundness and adaptability of the organisation and the esprit de corps that has always characterised the Branch.

At first glance the work of auditing accounts and compiling accounting, statistical and financial data, may appear to be totally lacking in any news value. In actual practice, however, it is found that most people find much that is of interest, if it be only the manner in which order is produced out of the mass of diversified documents which provide the raw materials for the activities of the office. The common expressions, “tons” or “stacks” of work can be applied quite literally to the quantities of freight waybills, pay-sheets, collected tickets, accounting statements, cash abstracts, bank drafts and vouchers, which flow into the office daily from all over the Dominion.

One feature of special interest is the mechanical equipment. Wherever it is possible to do so, electrically driven accounting machines, most of which are operated by girls who have acquired a high degree of skill and accuracy, are utilized for the pur-pose of eliminating mental and physical drudgery. They are maintained in a high state of efficiency by a staff of mechanicians who, because of their skill with such apparatus, are called on from time to time to deal with appliances varying from clocks to typewriters and ticket nippers. Adding, calculating, printing, duplicating, addressing, binding, punching and sorting machines and appliances are in daily use, and a great part of the results produced would be impossible of attainment without them.

There are numerous subsidiary services, such as refreshment rooms, advertising dis-plays on railway premises, road motor services, steamships, manufacturing and jobbing-workshops. The Department is one of the biggest landlords in New Zealand, having upwards of three thousand dwellings leased to the staff and others, and a large income from leases of land and other rights. The accounting, auditing, costing and financing systems of all these activities are finally controlled in the Chief Accountant's Office, added to which a very complete statistical analysis of operations is made. A revenue account of railway operations and subsidiary services is prepared four-weekly. At a time like the present, when the Department, in common with most other businesses, is facing a period of unparalleled depression, the value of these figures has been amply demonstrated. In a period of twelve months the Department has succeeded in reducing ex- page break

Railway Accounting in New Zealand
(Rly. Publicity photos.)
Operations of the Chief Accountant's Branch at Railway Headquarters, Wellington.—(1) Statistical staff: (2) Powers puncing machines; (3) freight revenue audit staff; (4) Mr. W. Bishop (Asst. Chief Accountant—Expenditure); (5) Mr. H. Valentine (Chief Accountant); (6) Mr. R. P. Gillies (Asst. Chief Accountant—Revenue); (7) revenue audit staff; (8) main office penditure accounts, superannuation and sick benefit fund accounts, and transportation statistics; (9) ticket sorting and pas-senger audit; (10) goods revenue balancing staff; (11) Powers tabulating and sorting machines (good condition); (12) addressograph, calculating and adding machines (goods section); (13) passenger audit staff.

page break page 34 penditure by over one million pounds. While such a result could be achieved only by the active co-operation of the whole staff, it can fairly be claimed that the campaign has been controlled and directed very largely by means of the accounting and statistical information made available to controlling officers and the staff generally.

Details of Organisation.

Mr. H. Valentine, the present Chief Accountant, who was responsible for the complete reorganisation of the acccounting system in 1925, has associated with him two assistants, Mr. W. Bishop, who is responsible for the expenditure accounts and statistical work, and Mr. R. P. Gillies, who is in charge of the revenue and audit side. An important factor in the reorganisation is that the office work has been sectionalised, with a divisional clerk in charge of each section.

Statistical Division.—Divisional Clerk, Mr. T. A. O'Connor. This division finalises the whole of the statistical and costing data prepared, and compiles a complete review of operations and special reports.

Passenger Division.—Divisional Clerk, Mr. J. H. Monteith. This division makes a complete audit of the passenger work for the whole Dominion, involving the checking of the revenue from upwards of twenty-five million passenger journeys annually.

Expenditure Division.—Divisional Clerk, Mr. A. A. B. Boult. On this division an analysis of the expenditure for the Maintenance, Locomotive, Traffic and Head Office accounts and costing statements in connection with same, are prepared. The total expenditure under the headings mentioned amounts to approximately £6,000,000 per annum.

Treasury Accounts Division.—Divisional Clerk, Mr. J. W. Dayman. All transactions of the Treasury are dealt with on this division, paysheets and vouchers are scheduled and recoveries dealt with, as also the Chief Accountant's Imprest Account.

Revenue and Goods Division.—Divisional Clerk, Mr. W. H. Simmons. On this division the audit of the goods and parcels revenue and station current accounts is carried out.

A battery of Powers machines—eleven punching, four tabulating, and three sorting machines—is used for the freight accounting and commodity analysis. A card is punched for each commodity recorded on goods waybills, station from and to, weight, mileage, commodity classification and freight charges. These cards are passed through the tabulating machine and the weight and charges checked with returns as rendered by stations. The cards are readily sorted into any order by the sorting machines, which each have a capacity of 300 cards per minute. By this means the cards relating to particular commodities are easily segregated, and such further tabulations as are necessary are then made.

The commodity analysis provides most valuable statistical information regarding the classes of goods conveyed, the average haul and the freight charges.

Superannuation and Paysheet Audit Division.—Divisional Clerk, Mr. P. J. Wright. The Government Railways Superannuation Fund and Government Railways Sick Benefit Society Fund accounts are kept on this division, which also carries out the pay-sheet audit. The paysheets dealt with involve the payment of over £4,000,000 annually.

Control Ledger.—The whole of the accounting work culminates in the final figures in the control and private ledgers, which are in the hands of Mr. W. R. Setter. The control ledger, as its name indicates, contains accounts with which all sections of the work must balance. The sectionalising of the work permits of any discrepancy being readily located notwithstanding the many thousands of transactions that are dealt with in the office daily.

Costing Officer.—Attached to the office is a Costing Officer, Mr. W. Venimore, who has specialised in costing work. Mr. Venimore makes special investigations into various phases of the Department's operations. He has recently introduced the “departmental” system into the four main workshops. This system, which is considered the most suitable for railway requirements, is functioning satisfactorily. Its main feature is the method of distribution of overhead page 35 charges appertaining to each particular department over the output therefrom.

Chief Accountant's Mechanician.—Mr. F. B. Freed, mechanician, with an expert assistant, has control of the repairs and upkeep of all the accounting and tabulating machinery, and is responsible for the designing of special appliances to meet the numerous accounting requirements of the Department. The mechanician's division is also responsible for repairs to typewriters and station clocks, ticket punches, etc.

Amongst the modern appliances in the office a machine little seen in New Zealand, known as the “Ditto” is in use. This machine reproduces copies of accounting and statistical information. The statements are typed in the usual way, but with a special “Ditto” ribbon, and then put through the “Ditto” machine, upwards of fifty good copies being readily produced in this way. This is achieved by means of a gelatine roll. Three distinctive colours are obtainable in the one operation. The machine takes paper up to 18 inches wide and 48 inches in length.

This article would not be complete without reference being made to the excellent service that is being rendered by the operators of the many machines and the female staff attached to the Chief Accountant's Branch. These young ladies, many of whom are the daughters of railway officers, are under the supervision of Mrs. A. M. Haslam, and have ably demonstrated their usefulness to the Department.

Workshop Of The Chief Accountant's Mechanician Division.
Mr. F. B. Freed (centre) and his assistants deal with repairs to statistical machines used in the Chief Accountant's Branch, and other types of mechanical work, adjusting station clocks, etc.

The foregoing account should give to both railwaymen and the public at least a dim glimpse behind the scenes at the highly specialised system which has been devised to handle the financial affairs of the N.Z. Government Railways.

A Legend of Whales.

“It is reported that whales are now so scarce in the Ross Sea that recently a whale followed a ship for two hundred miles, sobbing bitterly to be taken aboard for companionship's sake.”

Oh, where are our wandering whales to-night?
They've flown, like the tail of Willie's kite.
No more do they spout where billows boil,
(They're mostly converted to barrels of oil).
Yet sailors still tell a wondrous tale,
Of the last benighted Antarctic whale,
Who, when the weather's as thick as soup,
Endeavours to clamber up the poop
For a yarn with the cook or the boson's mate—
Or a chat with the skipper about the state
Of his health, and a gossip of that and this,
Including the price of ambergris.
And when, on account of his size and weight,
He gently but firmly “gets the gate,”
The tears trickle down his dusky cheek,
Like a boiler-house that has sprung a leak,
And he sobs, like the ghosts of a hundred gales
Does the last of the doomed Antarctic whales.
And carved on his ribs, so sailors bet,
He carries the caption, “Rooms to Let,”
So lonely he is for company,
He'd welcome a Jonah in to tea;
And all he sobs the whole night long,
Is a sad Norwegian Cradle Song.

—(Ken Alexander in the N. Z. Dairyman).