Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/394

388 in May of 1846, and for 1847 date was the first of June, 1848. There naturally was a corresponding dilatoriness in making appropriations for public services and even greater in the matter of payments.

The exact copies of the financial documents of this period appended to this paper are referred to for illustrations of the methods of business and accounting in the territorial treasury. The discrepancies between the "balance in treasury" or the "amount due treasurer" of one report and the "amount received from former treasurer" or "amount paid former treasurer," respectively, of the succeeding report are tantalizing. The existence of these discrepancies can be accounted for on the supposition that when making his report the treasurer had not drawn his commissions for the performance of the duties of his office. It is significant that in the one instance in which we have a statement showing the treasurer's account with the territory for his commissions balanced in that instance the "balance in the treasury" and the amount received from him by the succeeding treasurer do correspond. Furthermore, where the statement of the account of the treasurer with the territory for his commissions is not extant the data in the reports do not suffice for reproducing these accounts. We have no complete accounts of scrip exchanged, nor of scrip issued and paid, for which transactions the treasurers were entitled to commissions.