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School of Accounting and Commercial Law – Te Kura Kaute, Ture Tauhokohoko: Centre for Accounting, Governance and Taxation Research

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://ir.wgtn.ac.nz/handle/123456789/21217

See the Centre for Accounting, Governance and Taxation Research website for more information about the centre or the School of Accounting & Commercial Law website for their degrees, people, courses, contact details, news and events, and research.

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Browsing School of Accounting and Commercial Law – Te Kura Kaute, Ture Tauhokohoko: Centre for Accounting, Governance and Taxation Research by Subject "Accounting History"

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    Financing, Accounting, and Accountability in Colonial New Zealand: The Nelson School Society (1842 - 1852).
    (Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2007) Fowler, Carolyn
    There is little knowledge about financing and accounting activities within the early colonial New Zealand settlements. This paper investigates the financing, accounting, and accountability practices instituted by Nelson settlers between 1842 and 1852, when setting up education for the children of the settlement. This archival based history provides insights into these practices by using the Nelson School Society (NSS), a nineteenth century social institution, as a case study. The surviving archival evidence allows us to make tentative conclusions about accounting and financing practices in colonial Nelson. Firstly, the Nelson settlers provided the capital and revenue required to establish schools and operate them. This capital was provided by community donations and subscriptions while revenue was in the form of pupil fees. The institution was accountable to the capital providers and other stakeholders within the community through annual public meetings, published reports and public examinations. Later, due to expansion, application was made to the Government for help in defraying continuing losses. This could be seen as desire for public funding of what might still, at that time, be considered private benefits. Additionally, the expansion from a single site to a geographically dispersed multisite operation necessitated the implementation of governance arrangements. Each of the multisite operations had little centralised control but were accountable to the general management committee of the NSS. The accounting records appear to have been kept mainly to record the money owing to the treasurer and to demonstrate to potential funding providers the need for more money to cover this debt and expand the NSS. These accounts from 1846 were examined or audited and balanced. Overall this archival history suggests that early settlers in colonial Nelson had a good grasp of and applied financing, accounting, governance and accountability concepts and practices that are commonly found today.
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    Intergenerational equity in municipal accounting: New Zealand 1910s
    (Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2010) Colquhoun, Philip
    Accounting for fixed assets by municipalities has been discussed in the accounting history literature previously. This paper addresses two issues related to accounting for fixed assets not previously discussed; the influence of the principle of intergenerational equity on local government accounting, and the influence of users of accounting information in accounting policy making in government accounting. The paper identifies that users of accounting information have had significant influence in a debate on government accounting policy, and that the principle of intergenerational equity was given a position of high importance in the debate, but not an unchallengeable position. The motivation of the users of accounting information to engage in the debates is identified as a form of civic duty, which is consistent with the ethical imperative in ensuring intergenerational equity.
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    The Production of Legitimacy in New Zealand Local Government Auditing
    (Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2011) Colquhoun, Philip
    This paper expands our understanding of the introduction of new audit arrangements in the public sector by looking at three cases relating to the audit of local government. The first case saw the Audit Office replacing the elected auditors as the sole auditor of municipalities in 1886; the second case saw the Auditor-General fail to gain additional powers to control the financial management of local government; and the third case saw the introduction of operational audits in New Zealand local government. Following Power (2003, p.391), the paper illustrates how legitimacy was sought in these three cases by using the three stages of controversy, closure and credibility. All three stages can be separately identified in the two cases that succeed, with the failure point for the unsuccessful case being identified as the controversy stage. The use of Power (2003) is viewed as useful in accounting history and it avoids the use of terms associated with auditing, such as independence and objectivity, being used to evaluate auditing practice and arrangements.