FINANCE.
The question of the proper depreciation of the property, fixed and live stock of the Society, to which attention had been called by the auditors on many occasions, had not yet been placed on a satisfactory basis. The committee brought in several amendments of rules for the purpose of putting the matter right, but these were not accepted by the delegates; nor was a counter proposal, that a sum of £200 be taken from the reserve fund and applied to reducing the value of the horses and plant. This latter proposal received a majority of the votes at the quarterly meeting, but as a majority of three-fourths of those voting was necessary before any money could be withdrawn from the reserve fund, and the majority was not large enough, both proposals dropped, and the old, unsatisfactory position continued. At a later date the question was again brought up by Mr Macintosh, who, in response to a request by the committee, outlined a scheme for putting this important branch of the Society’s financial arrangements on a sound footing. The practice had been to allocate a certain percentage of the profits each quarter to depreciation account; Mr Macintosh urged that for this method they should substitute that of allocating a fixed percentage of the initial cost, and that this should be regarded as a charge on the trade of the Society and should be allocated before the profits were ascertained and irrespective of whether there were any profits. The committee were in favour of the proposed alteration, but considered the time inopportune to have it made as so large a proportion of the property was unproductive at that time. They therefore decided to delay the matter for twelve months. It was not until the end of 1888 that depreciation was put on a satisfactory basis.