Evening star., 1903-07-02
WATER RENT BILLS
THOSE FOR NEW FISCAL YEAR
READY FOR DISTRIBUTION.
Changes in the System of Accounts,
Which Facilitate Their Handling
and Adjustment.

Water rent bills for the new fiscal year
beginning July 1 are now ready for distribu-
ton at the District building, a number OF
them having already been given out. All OF
the bills. amounting to over $4,000 have
been prepared In advance, SO that persons
calling for their statements will not have
to wait for them to be written
There is difference in the form Of the
bill this year over what it has been here
tofore. The old bill had but one coupon.
which, when paid. was sent by the collector
to the auditor. The new bill has two cou-
pons one of which goes to the auditor, as
heretofore, but with an additional coupon
for the water registrar. from which credits
are entered in the registrars Office within
an hour or two after the bill is paid. Here
tofore credits were entered from the collec-
tors cash book on the day after payment
was made, and entailed considerable labor
and force of clerks to do the work. I'm
der the new system one clerk can care for
the coupons and keep the accounts posted
practically fast as the bills are paid.
Another improvement is that each Dill,
with its coupons, bears number cor
responding to the number of the account,
so that ready reference may be had from
one to the other
Another change that strikes the eye upon
entering the Office of the water registrar is
q row handsome oak card cases. These cases
contain about 10000 cards, upon which are
kept the water rent accounts. There is one
card for each account, the cards being
numbered consecutively from 1 up. Each
card has sufficient room upon 1t to carry an
account for seven years. They take the
place of twelve large ledgers hitherto
used and which had to be replaced every
three years.
The New Card Index.
The new system was put in under au-
thority of an item in the District appropria-
ton act, approved March 3, 1903, which
provided ''for introducing the card record
system in the office of the water registrar,
including cards, fixtures labor and other
items necessary to install the same, 2,0OO
to be Immediately available"
The Office of the water registrar is under
the supervision of Col. John Biddle, the
Engineer Commissioner, and the change is
due to effort on his part and that Of his
assistant, Capt. Chester Harding, to adopt
the best and most up-to-date business
methods for the office. The system just
put into operation was worked out by Mr..
Moncure Burke, secretary to the Engineer
Commissioner.
The work was commenced as soon after
the passage of the appropriation as the
cards could be printed, which was about
April 10, and it was completed two months
later. Two thousand dollars was appro
pr1ated for the purpose, but the work has
81 800
The water rent accounts are kept by
premises, and one of the difficulties encoun-
tered was to get good practical index for
the fifty-odd thousand accounts The index
devised, which answers the purpose admir-
ably, consists of a card for each square,
arranged according to streets; the house
numbers for the particular block are print
ed on the card, and opposite each number
Is the number of the account for that house
Each card has projecting tab with num-
ber on it, indicating the locality. For in
stance. the index card for K street between
14th and 18th would be headed "140O," and
all houses on X street in the fourteen hun
dreds would appear upon that card; differ
ent colored cards are used to indicate the
four different sections of the city. The in
dex was gotten up by Mr.. Burhe especially
for this class of accounts 1t is very COM
pact and greatly facilitates refei ences to
the accounts.