Financing, Accounting and Accountability in Social Institutions: Nelson Primary Education (1842-1859)

Abstract

The objective of this archival-based research is to examine the migration of and any changes in financing, accounting and accountability practices as the provision and control of primary education in the newly established settlement of Nelson moved from not-for-profit to public sector organisations. More specifically, it examines these changes from the Nelson education system's birth in 1842 where the settlers organised the first voluntary school system and then within 17 years, developed it into New Zealand's most successful provincial public system. A theoretical framework based on institutional theory provides an explanation for these changes. In doing so, the study provides an understanding of financing, accounting and accountability practices in the past as well as challenging contemporary beliefs and affording an appreciation of how and why these practices developed. The research suggests that financing, accounting, and accountability practices had a role to play as both a technique and an institution. This role changed as control for education provision in mid-nineteenth century Nelson migrated from not-for-profit to public sector organisations. Some of the practices or techniques observed were sector dependent while others were common to both sectors. Furthermore, as a technique, it reflected many of the financing, accounting, and accountability practices currently used by similar social institutions. Hence, these practices had a degree of sophistication that is not acknowledged in contemporary papers, raising the conundrum of how far have accounting practice developments come versus how much of the 'wheel" has been reinvented. Some of these practices were also institutions used by the not-for-profit and public sector education providers as legitimating devices to receive the support of and funding from the government and community. Some education organisations were seen as less legitimate than others and did not survive. Additionally, some of the more successful education providers manipulated their accounting information to gain this legitimacy. Financing, accounting and accountability practices were seen to change because of the various institutional pressures exerted from the institutional environment. The not-for-profit institutional pressures were predominately normative, with some cultural-cognitive/mimetic and regulatory/coercive influences. Those on the public sector were mainly regulatory/coercive. It also appears that some institutions are the result of a mixture of institutional pressures. Although this research contributes to the literature relating to accounting and associated practices within their organisational and societal context and identifies, using institutional theory, that these practices play a dual role within this social context, the research's main contribution has been to fill a gap in knowledge in the New Zealand and international history literature. The study provides a detailed narrative and theoretical explanation of financing, accounting, and accountability practices for a time-period not covered in prior New Zealand historical research. The New Zealand focus also augments the limited UK and Australian literature regarding these concepts in nineteenth century social institutions. Furthermore, it contributes to the New Zealand education historical literature by applying a theoretical approach to pre-1877 education administration, and adding to the limited research on funding aspects, while also examining accounting and accountability; two areas not covered in other New Zealand education-based histories.