ABSTRACT
The Financial books of manufacturing concerns were gradually raised to the very high state of practical and scientific excellence at which they now stand, the Cost Accounts-being deprived of the natural advantages of professional scrutiny-remained upon a comparatively primitive level. The lecture and the pro forma accounts were duly reproduced in these columns at the time, and form the most valuable contribution upon the accounts of gas companies. The inevitable consequence of this system of "dual control" was that the results obtained by the cost books were not in accordance with the results shown by the financial books; and owing to the attitude of the profession at that time the results remained unreconciled. A very similar form is used by water companies; but with these undertakings the most suitable bases for the decimal calculations are "per service" and "per thousand gallons of water supplied".
