The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

APPENDIX A. 439
Some of the improvements in the money order department also
belong to this class.
Upwards of twelve months ago, this class of improvements being,
as I thought, nearly exhausted, I was preparing to address your
Lordship as at present, when my design was postponed through the
following circumstance : The money-order department being
of such
a nature as to admit of separation, in a great degree, from the other
business of the office, and Colonel Maberly having declined to
undertake the responsibility thereof under the retrenchments and
other improvements adopted on my recommendation by your Lord-
ship and the Treasury, you were pleased
management
to transfer the secretarial
of that department to me.
Of the change which has followed this transfer I need not speak
in detail. By a report of Mr. Barth, the head of the department,
dated 3ist January, 1848, it appears that the accounts were then
in an almost hopeless state of arrears ; great doubt was entertained
whether they ever could be made complete, and the expense of
their completion, supposing it to be possible, was estimated at
;
1 0,000. No general balance had ever been struck since the
institution of the department in 1839, and the liabilities were of
unknown amount. To avoid the enormous expense of bringing
up the arrears, and to ensure the extinction of unknown liabilities,
it was necessary to obtain an Act of Parliament calling in the
outstanding money orders. Concurrent efforts were made to bring
up the more recent arrears, and to prevent the possibility of new
ones arising ; and, in consequence of these measures, affairs are
now in such a state that, at the end of August next, the liabilities
of the department will be fully known, and the materials obtained
for a general balance, which will then be struck forthwith.
On investigating the accounts, I found, to my great concern, that
the department was not only, as I had anticipated, unprofitable,
but that it involved an annual loss of no less than ^i 0,000. It
has, however, been found practicable, even with greatly increased
perfection in the accounts, to introduce, by successive improvements,
such simplification as will save the salaries of 50 clerks in
the London Office alone ; and this, combined with other important
savings already effected, will, in all probability, render the department
self-supporting in the course of the present year.
But your Lordship is aware that further important improvements
are now in progress, by means of which I confidently expect the
money-order department will be made to afford a satisfactory profit.
I may remark that the savings effected in this department have