Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/179

 FINANCIAL HISTORY OF OREGON. 171 Comments on the Above Treasury Statements. It is to be noticed that there is always a ' * balance remaining in the treasury. ' ' Unfortunately there are peculiarities about several of the Auditors' reports that render it impossible to determine the amount of warrants outstanding at the end of each year. If the list of warrants issued during each year could be relied upon as containing all given by the Auditor, if every warrant issued amounted to an actual liability of th*3 Territory, 85 and if there were no payments from the treasury except on orders drawn by the Auditor, the floating debt of the Territory from year to year would be easily ascertainable. None of these conditions was fulfilled. The lists of warrants issued are not complete. The Treasurer did not recognize a warrant as necessarily authorizing a payment. Payments were sometimes made from the treasury without the formality of a warrant. In fact the balances of the auditors and the treasurers do not in the course of the eight years of treasury records agree more than three times on the "amount re- ceived by the Treasurer" and the "balance remaining in the treasury." Agreement on the "balance remaining in the treasury" is not arrived at from data appearing in the audi- tors' accounts. The only procedure through which the lia- bilities of the Territory at the end of each year could be exactly ascertained would be to classify every claim paid according to year when incurred and when paid. The Territorial Gov- ernment began with a clean ledger. It did not assume any obligations of the Provisional Government and it handed down none that appear on the records to the State Government. Taking the statements of the auditors, the public debt ?.1 the end of each year was as follows: 86 1852, $419.04; 1853, 85 From 1857 on, the Territorial Treasurer was required to pay all warrants of the Territorial Auditor, if there was money in the treasury for the purpose. Statutes of Oregon, Eighth Session, 1856-7, p. 27. 86 By act of December 11, 1856, warrants that had been presented and "not paid for want of funds," drew legal interest until notice was given that there were funds to redeem such outstanding warrants. Interest paid on warrants amounted in 1857 to $167.00; in 1858 to $51.28.