Milford chronicle., 1889-10-11
Auditors Report.

II is, we think, an incontravertible propo
sition that the people who pay the take!
have right to know exactly how those take.
are applied. If we understand the aim anC
purpose Of the Auditors report it is to furn.
ish to the general public a full complete and
explicit statement of the receipts and dis
bursements both of the State aud of the
county moneys, Such being the object OF
the report, it is worthless in proportion as it
fails to give a full, complete and explicit ac-
count ofall receipts and disbursements, and
not only worthless because of the lack or
suppression of information, but more than
worthless financially because the money
which is spent expressly for furnishing such
information is spent in vain.
The report before us, for 1888, is remarka-
bic not so much for the information which
It gives, as for that which it fails to give :;
not so much for the details it sets forth as
for tho details of important expenditures
which 1t suppresses and to which it wholly
fails even to allude. For how much this
state of affairs James H. Boyce, under whose
editorship the book is printed, is responsi.
ble,and for how mnch the various account.
ing officers are responsible, we have no means
OF knowing except by inference These var
ious accounting officers present their vouch
ers TO the auditor, and the auditor can at
least give to the public the information con-
tanned in them. Where the voucher is sim. |
ply the order Of body like the Levy Court |
he cannot give greater information than that |
the money was paid to such and such per-
son, stating that it was paid upon an order /
We shall find on examination that there are
important items unexplained which Mr..
Boyce had the power to explain and some
which he had not. We observe with deep
regret this tendency to a suppression Of
financial details, not because it is 6toof that
there is something to conceal but because it
IS good ground for suspicion that there may
De, especially when the amount happens 10
be large. We denounce any system of aver.
ages BY which, for example, a single line is
made to state that $4,000 is paid to the shei-
III while Is pages are consumed in explain
ing how $1,000. is disbursed to the poor.
Such statement, found in the book before !
us, looks very much like a subterfuge in J
tended primarily to keep the people in the l
dark regarding the uses to which their :
money is being put, aud yet give them, in {
bulk, the value Of the thousand dollars, or Z
more, that they spend for book of reports J
whose only excuse for being at all is that it c
gives to the taxpayer full and true account X
Of the ways in which and the objects for l
which his money is expended.
Nor will it avail anything as an explaua- g
ton TO say that the accounts of the poor are c
necessarily extended since the disbursements c
are made to a great number of people, and [
Tor a different variety Of causes ranging from
he furnishing of supplies to the poverty of X
he recipient This is only recognizing the Il
necessity which exists for so itemizine the +
icconnts that the public may see at glance NJ
he person to whom and the reason for which T.
he expenditure is made N
The necessity which exists for itemiziue w
he poor account, exists in an even greater G,
egree in the sheriff and other personal ac- Sn
cunts involving large sums, as there is a w
reater reason for suspecting crookedness u yal
hen large sum is.paid to one person than y,
hen the same sum is disbursed to number p;
f persons
The printer has lent his assistance to Mr.. ] T
oyce in filling the book with glariug mac An
racies, which, ifthey were confined to the =
rors in proper names with which the book ~ ~
rly swarms, we might, perhaps, excuse on v
e ground that there is no rule by which lest
y should be spelled, and yet we should Jam
psSs that an identical name should be We
siiedtbe same when II annasrs -, 49, B
!. ,. D., 49,. - - ''ie Viii
N which, at random we cite the following Ioh,
'anees ISL