Financing, Accounting, and Accountability in Colonial New Zealand: The Nelson School Society (1842 - 1852).

Abstract

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.