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

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

From community to public ownership: A tale of changing accountabilities

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine changes in accountability as the provision and control of education moved from private nonprofit organisations to a public sector provider. Design/methodology/approach: Analysis of nineteenth century archival documents from significant primary educational providers in a major early New Zealand settlement. Findings: The nonprofit education provider utilised public meetings including public examinations, whose effect was to develop trust based on the education values it shared with its community of stakeholders. It also published financial reports which, along with inspections and statistical returns, were preferred once the government became the education provider. Such publications and inspections indicated bureaucracy and control. Nevertheless, government funding, rather than the nonprofit organisation's dependence on its community, made education provision sustainable. Research limitations/implications: It has been suggested that the differences between public sector and private sector accounting and accountability are not always sharply defined (Carnegie and Napier, 2012). However, this case study shows that a change of education provider did lead to a marked difference in accountability. While theory suggests that public sector accountability should enhance democracy, the party best meeting this brief was the nonprofit provider, with the public sector provider preferring hierarchical accountability. It could be argued that funding dependence drove these different approaches as community accountability was traded for financial security. Originality/value: Distinctive study of accountability practices to external stakeholders, in a mid-nineteenth century education context

The development of incorporated structures for charities:a 100 year comparison of England and New Zealand

This article contrasts the emergence of two specific incorporated structures for non-profit organizations which came into being more than a century apart. We compare the ability for charities to form as “incorporated societies” under the New Zealand Incorporated Societies Act 1908 (effective from 1909), and to form as “charitable incorporated organizations” (CIOs), which were enacted in England and Wales under the Charities Act 2006 (effective from 2013). The article emphasizes the need for charitable non-profit organizations to incorporate for effective operation. This issue is rarely discussed, but the chosen legal form brings specific financial accounting obligations, affecting organizations’ accountability to third parties. Taking a comparative international history approach and drawing on a range of sources, we explore the socio-legal processes which led to the relevant legislation in each country. In particular, this diffusion study investigates why a specific corporate form for charitable non-profit organizations came into effect more than 100 years later in England as compared to New Zealand, with “place” emerging as the most significant comparative dimension

From Social Policy to Economic Policy: Taxation Incentives for Retirement Income Savings in New Zealand (1910 - 2005)

New Zealand has seen a change in policy direction from the provision of taxation incentives for retirement income savings from 1910 through to 1988, to removal of all incentives from 1988 through to 2004. In 1910 the focus was primarily on decreasing state dependency, while simultaneously assisting individuals  to be self­reliant. By 1988  the focus had moved to increasing efficiency and removing inequities that were present in the incumbent scheme. In 2004 and 2005 the New Zealand Government demonstrated that  they are no longer opposed to providing ‘incentives’ to encourage retirement income savings, with the implementation of schemes targeted at the individual level and the work­based level. The indication is that taxation incentives to encourage retirement savings are more likely to be witnessed in a welfarist political environment. Conversely if the political environment has a stronger neo­liberal focus, the support for taxation incentives is likely to reduce

Liberal Education – Perceptions of New Zealand Practicing Accountants

During the 1990s the value to an intending professional accountant of undertaking a period of liberal (general) studies was promoted internationally by a number of individuals and organisations, including the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (the “Institute”). The Institute significantly changed its admissions policy for Chartered Accountants in 1996 and one change was to require four years of degree level study with a compulsory liberal studies component. This study surveys the perceptions of New Zealand accounting practitioners on the impact of this compulsory liberal component. The results of this study demonstrate that there is little support from accounting practitioners for IFAC’s claim that liberal education “can contribute significantly to the acquisition of professional skills”, including intellectual, personal and communication skills. In addition, the majority of respondents did not perceive any improvements in the professional skills of the staff that had qualified under the Institute’s current admissions policy. However, any perceived improvements were mainly attributed to the Institute’s policy change. Notwithstanding the lack of support for the assertion that liberal education develops professional skills, there is a strong belief by respondents in the value of liberal education for intending professional accountants

A Risk-focused Performance Management System Framework for Planning Change in Organisations: New Zealand 'Gentailers' and the ETS

In 2007 the New Zealand government in principle adopted the implementation of a cap and trade emissions trading scheme (ETS) in the energy sector from 2010. The objective of this paper is to develop a risk-focused performance management system (PMS) planning framework for organisations undergoing externally-driven regulatory change that constrains their operating environment and increases business and operating risk exposure. This paper focuses on the New Zealand electricity generators and retailers (gentailers). It utilises contingency theory and secondary data to explain PMS change implications due to the altered business risk exposure potential of the proposed emissions trading regime and the associated carbon constraints this regulatory change imposes on these organisations' operating environment. The risk-focused PMS planning framework developed in this study allowed the identification of the drivers and attributes that due to the ETS adoption potentially have significant negative business risk impacts for some gentailers. The findings arising from the application of this risk-focused PMS framework to the New Zealand electricity gentailers suggest that the predominantly thermal-based generators will be more disadvantaged due to a reduction in competitiveness and profitability. This reduction is the result of the interaction between the ETS-related risks and the sources and types of external and internal environmental uncertainty associated with the regulatory change. The business risks identified not only influence organisational-level PMS design function and operation needs but also have economic consequences at sectoral and national levels particularly in relation to national security of electricity supply. The paper provides insights into an organisation's potential internal adjustments in response to increases in internal and external business risks due to the introduction of the ETS and changing wider environmental management expectations. Theory implications relate to the role and use of risk in improving the application of contingency theory in explaining organisational change under environmental pressures. Additionally the paper contributes to the management accounting research through the examination of the internalisation of externalities such as wider climate change management. Consequently the findings of this study will be of potential interest to academics managers accountants other professionals governments and policy-makers

Can A Poll Tax Ever Be Acceptable? - Evidence from Colonial New Zealand

Poll taxes, while simple in concept, have a regressive effect and unsurprisingly are usually unpopular for this reason which is why they are not commonly used today. Poll taxes were imposed in 19th century New Zealand, with one of the earliest being a form of poll tax imposed by the Nelson Province in 1856 to fund public education. Despite the inherent shortcomings of a poll tax, the Nelson education tax was eventually accepted and defended by the community and produced revenue to fund public education. This paper examines the history of the Nelson poll tax to determine why it was successful when elsewhere, both in earlier and later times, poll taxes have been the focus of considerable dissent which has eventually lead to their demise. Among other reasons, the poll tax revenue being ear-marked for a specific purpose that was perceived by the wider community as important was a major factor in the success of the tax

The management accountant's role in the implementation and operation of a total quality management programme

Management accounting's objective is to provide management with information that supports management's responsibility for planning, controlling and decision making. The management accountant performs a variety of tasks that fulfil these objectives. As organisations adapt to today's globalised business environment, they are implementing new management techniques. One of these is Total Quality Management (TQM). It has been suggested that the traditional management accounting tasks have dysfunctional consequences in a TQM environment, and management accounting must develop new tasks and accounting systems that provide management with the information they require in a TQM firm. The literature review identified the possible tasks a management accountant could perform in the implementation and operation of a TQM programme. To test these hypothesised roles, a mail survey of forty-eight New Zealand firms that were thought to have impiemented TQM was used. The results of this research suggest that those management accountants have a limited role to play in the implementation of a TQM programme. This role appears to be confined to three areas: participation in the implementation committee; implementing TQM into the accounting area; and identifying the firm's external and internal customers and suppliers, and ascertaining their requirements. However, once TQM is operational, management accountants appear to have more involvement, especially in the provision of the accounting data required to operate the TQM programme

Accounting For The Organisation's Internal Environment And Risk: costing and control

In the changing and sometimes volatile world in which organisations operate and do business, management accounting and management accountants are responsible for the costing, control, and performance information that support management decision-making; the optimising of organisational performance; and the managing of business risk exposure. The strategic choices of these organisations determine the sources and types of relationships that organisations will engage in, both within their internal operating environments and their external business environments. Organisations have a greater capacity to control their internal operating relationships (whether these are organisation to people, people to people, people to physical assets, or physical assets to physical assets) than they do their external business relationships, which have different sources and types of uncertainty and risk. In this book, the focus is on the internal operating environment of the organisation. It looks at how management accounting tools, techniques, and frameworks assist management accountants to identify the information and reporting needs of management for managing and treating various sources and types of internal operating uncertainty and risk, so as to optimise organisation performance