of the 1925 Fair, which was abandoned. The account shows a loss of £11,632 1s., making a total loss of £12,565 Os. 11d. on the whole series of Fairs to 31 March, 1925.

It was arranged that a sum of £3,000 should be charged to the Income and Expenditure Account annually to cover departmental overhead expenses, but the present account, though dealing with a period of two years, includes only one such charge, reduced by a sum of £202 to compensate for loss of equipment by fire. In reply to inquiry I am informed that Treasury sanction is being sought for the omission of the second annual charge.

STATIONERY OFFICE.

Stationery Office Presses.

17. The depreciation reserve fund referred to in paragraph 19 of my last Report was increased during 1924-25 by £18,457 17s. 4d., which sum is charged to depreciation in the Profit and Loss Accounts. £10,000 is regarded as having been spent during the year upon replacement of obsolescent plant, &c., and this sum has been taken from the fund in lieu of fresh capital advances for plant. The balance of the Depreciation Fund at 31 March, 1925, is £44,064 14s. 10d., a net increase of £8,457 17s. 4d., while the net increase in capital advances for purchases of plant is £14,034 1s. 6d.

STATIONERY OFFICE.

Sale Offices.

18. Before the year 1917, it was the policy of the Stationery Office to lease the privilege of selling and distributing the Government publications to the firm who offered the highest premium. The successful tenderer thus secured a monopoly of these sales, and during the years 1905 to 1917 £4,200 per annum was paid for the privilege.

Among the recommendations, however, of the Select Committee on Publications and Debates Reports, published in H.C. 321 of 27 July, 1915, was one to the effect that the sale of Government publications was not merely a matter of finance, but a means of disseminating the views and securing the ends for which the publications were issued, and it was thought that greater advantage would be obtained both financially and for the broader issue if, in future, the sale of Government publications was not left in the control of a monopalist.

As the result of these recommendations, Government Sale Offices were opened in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Cardiff.

The present accounts, which are free from the defects to which I drew attention in my last Report, show that for the year ended 31 March, 1925, losses were incurred on the three provincial Sale Offices, offset by a profit on the London Sale Offices, with the result that the amalgamated account of all the Offices shows a net profit of £584 for the year. In comparing this profit with the sum (£4,200) received from the agent prior to 1917, it must be remembered that that contractor had not the advantage of issuing publications to repaying departments, and that it is to this part of the service that the present profit of £584 is largely due. Without it there would, in fact, be a loss on the Sale Offices of approximately £1,000 for the year. I am not in a position to say how far the other advantages envisaged by the Select Committee in 1915 have been realized.

BOARD OF TRADE.

War Services Trading Accounts presented as Final
Accounts in the 1923-24 Volume.

19. As explained to the Public Accounts Committee of 1925, the Treasury decided that it was unnecessary to continue the preparation of accounts in trading form in cases where trading operations had practically ceased but liquidation had not been completed. The accounts belonging to this type related mainly to operations instituted for the supply of commodities during the war, and in consequence of the Treasury directions, trading accounts of these services were presented for the last time in 1923-24. I informed the Public Accounts Committee that I would continue to keep under observation the liquidation of the transactions in question until they were completely wound up, and that I would call the attention of the Committee to any matters which might appear to me to deserve their notice.

The Flax, Siberian Supplies, and Reparation Timber accounts, which appeared as final accounts in the volume for 1923-24, have now been completely wound up.

Final liquidation of the following accounts is still delayed pending legal decisions, arbitration, settlements with Foreign Governments, &c., and large debtor and creditor balances remain uncleared Food, Sugar, Wheat, Home Grown and Imported Timber, Petroleum, and Potash.

Cash receipts and payments during 1924-25, and losses written off during that year, are recorded in the Statement of Vote of Credit Trading and Other Operations issued by the Treasury. The losses were covered by the reserves for bad debts, &c., included in the 1923-24 Balance Sheets.

Cash surplus to the requirements of these accounts is paid into the Exchequer from time to time, and £500,000 was so paid during 1924-25. In February, 1926, under Treasury direction,

the cash balances with the Paymaster-General were further reduced by surrenders amounting to about £1,275,000, leaving balances approximating to £4,070,000 as follows:-Food £3,200,000, Sugar £64,000, Wheat £190,000, Timber £100,000, Petroleum £534,000 (of which £331,000 was held by the Treasury), and Potash (overdrawn) £11,500.

The Diverted Cargoes (Cotton) Account is in a separate category. There was no cash balance remaining on this account at 31 March 1924, but the Balance Sheet included a reserve of £35,150 for outstanding claims. Payments amounting to £10,339, in settlement of two claims, were made in 1924-25 from the Vote for the Board of Trade, Class II, Vote 9, Subhead P. 6.

Malcolm G. Ramsay,

Comptroller and Auditor General.

Exchequer and Audit Department.

29 March 1926.

ACCOUNTS AND BALANCE SHEETS.

NOTE. The explanatory memoranda which precede various accounts have been prepared by the respective administering Departments.

ADMIRALTY.

Buildings, Machinery, and Stocks surplus to peace require

£1,043,435 12

* At 4.075 per cent., i.e., mean of the Bank rate during the year. S. 8995.

£1,043,435 12 1