The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1905-02-16
SPECIAL COMMITTEE REPORTS

The report of the legislature special
committee to examine the books Of
State officers in part as follows:
To the General Assembly of South
| Carolina:
Your committee appointed to make
quarterly examination of the offices of
the State treasurer, comptroller gen.
eral, sinking fund commissioners and
the secretary of state beg to report:
That they have examined the book
OF accounts of the above named officers
and find the offices of State treasurer.
comptroller general and sinking fund
correct, with proper vouchers, the Of
fees and the books neatly and we'll
kept, and the committee with pleasure.
commend the efficiency and courtesy OF
the officers and assistants in these sew
eral departments.
Appended are statement from the
books Of the several departments.
We beg to call attention to the fact
that the office of the comptroller gen.
eral is so!ely in need of cases, ETC., for
the preservation Of the valuable records
in that office. Papers of great value
are compelled to be left uncovered and
unprotected for lack Of safe and con-
venient places to file them, and should
a fire occur in that office, as did occur
in the secretary of states office, the
less would be irreparable and gpthing
would be saved except such recoTHs and
| books as can be and are kept M>the
already crowded safe. We earneAly
urge supplying this office with proper
fixtures and that sufficient appropria-
| tion be made for this purpose at this
session. .
AS to the secretary of states office,
the report says:
This office has not been included in
| the examinations heretofore, but last
year this additional duty was placed
on this committee and it has been an
onerous, unpleasant and extremely diff
ficult matter to ascertain the exact
and true condition of the finances Of
this office-due to many reasons which
we will attempt to show later on.
When We first went to this office IN
April. 1904, We were informed that we
could conclude our hbors "in 10 min
utes" and were shown the bank books
and mere statement of amounts, ag-
| gregate, received in that office and
| amount paid State treasurer. On in
sisting that We came for real exami-
nation We were begged for time to pre-
pare books, etc. However, your commit
tee went to work, but soon found, on
account Of the absence of books and
| improper entries Of cash received,
wrong and improper entries made in
the books furnished, which had been
badly kept. Your committee feeling the
need of thorough examination ad
| journed and secured the services Of an
accountant, Mr.. ]. C.. Hollis Of Gaffney
S. c., and with his valuable assistance
made up book Of every item we could
| find and was furnished by Mr.. R. M.
McCown, the assistant clerk. said bo k
being now in the possession Of your
committee After adjourning and be-
fore our return with Mr.. Hollis many
errasures and corrections were made on
the books attempted to be kept. The
| only way we could do was to handle
each declaration for charter, return,
| application for notary public-in fact
every paper during Mr. Gantt's admin
| tration. Seeing that considerable time
would be consumed in this eXamina-
ton, we did not feel justified in going
back Of his term without express au-
| thority, SO did not do so, but feel now
| that this should be done by the COM
mittee to be appointed.
In comparing the return OF corpora
| tors to the charters that were re-
corded, we found some unrecorded and
others eroneously recorded, such as
| where a charter had been granted in
the sum Of $4,000, same was recorded
as having been issued in the sum OF
$50 600. This work we did not complete
on account Of very damaging fire in
the office where, principally, all records
were kept, and since that time We have
been unable to do any such work. for
the books were badly injured, hence
such examination was necessarily sus-
pended.
| In many cases we found where over
| collections had been made. aggregating
| s367.55 ranging from so cents to S77.5O.
| There was no evidence that these va
| rious items had been returned to the
proper parties, but on the contrary,
| the secretary of state Informed us we
had nothing to do with these excess
amounts, as that was a matter be-
tween himself and the parties sending
| them" We do not agree ID such
proposition. On the book which was
supposed to be kept items were left of
entirely. To illustrate: Camperdown
mills, chartered April so, 1904; charter
| fee Sl00, and others.
Improper amounts credited to State:
Puckhaber Bros. Charleston; charter
fee $50; amount State credited with,
SIS. March 90. 1904 We feel compelled
to condemn this carelssness in hand
ling the peoples money and in not
keeping proper entries of all moneys
coming through the office, also the
method that has prevailed in many in
stances where credit system has been
allowed. To give an instance, the Nor
ris Cotton mills, charter increased on
April 10, 1903 charter fee $50; amount
received after charter issued, S35; and
the claim was made that the late Col.
D. K. Norris conteIded that the office
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