First  The  Committee  of  Public  Accounts  made  a  separate

ArrmTand*  report  on  the  subject,  in  which,  with  the  concurrence  of

Navy  the  then  Comptroller  and  Auditor  General,  they  approved

the  adoption  of  the  Treasury  proposal  to  apply  the  new
scheme  in  the  first  instance  to  the  extra  receipts  of  the
Army  and  Navy,  which  they  remarked,  "though  making
an  important  advance  in  the  right  direction,  must  be  con-
sidered as  tentative,  and  not  as  a  final  settlement"  (see
„  paragraph  4  of  Third  Report  1881).  The  Appendix  to

the  Report  of  the  Committee  gives  the  fullest  informa-
tion of  the  various  stages  of  the  discussion  upon  this
question  of  the  inquiries  upon  which  this  scheme  was
based  and  of  the  grounds  upon  which  the  expediency  of
the  change  was  advocated.
The  extension  of  the  system  to  the  Votes  for  Civil
Services  has  only  been  effected  in  recent  years  by  a  grad-
ual process  covering  first  one  vote  and  then  another,  as,

104


ESTIMATES:    APPROPRIATIONS  IN  AID


for  instance,  the  Exchequer  and  Audit  Office  in  1883-84,
the  Diplomatic  and  Consular  Services  in  1885-86.  In
1892-93  there  was  a  large  extension  covering  39  votes
(see  paragraph  5,  Comptroller  and  Auditor  General's
Report).  But  there  remains  some  to  which  it  has  not  yet
been  extended  (see  paragraph  5  above  cited).  In  1883
the  Committee  stated  that  one  uniform  principle  should
be  observed  throughout  the  services,  and  recommended
a  gradual  extension  of  the  system  to  those  Civil  Service
Votes  which  most  readily  admit  of  it  (see  Second  Report
1883,  paragraph  2).
The  change  of  practice,  which  originally  rested  upon
directions  in  Treasury  Minutes,  has  received  the  stat-
utory authority  contained  in  section  2  (3)  of  the  Public
Accounts  and  Charges  Act  of  1891.
