Volume 62: Walter Stevenson Davidson papers, 1815-1846: No. 270

[Page 270]
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1834, 35, and 36, (page 105) and it will be found that they yielded me an aggregate Wool remittance of  £2088  19s. 9d.,
or an annual average of                      £696  6s.  7d. 
To which add money remittances
made by Mr. Jones, from Mr Jones,
from the produce of my Flocks
during the same period (page 99,
and separate Account for 1884), and
they amount in the aggregate to
 £1,418  3s.  11d., forming an annual 
average of  .    .    .                                £472  14  7
       And a net Annual Remittance of    £1,169 1   2
Whereas Mr. Patrick Leslie's Average of the like period of 3 years, ---viz., 1837, 38, and 39, for every species of Remittance to me (none but the Wool having ever come)  (page 105), formed an aggregate of  £2,296  6s. ;  or an annual average of  £765 8s.  8d.                    
     Then turn to page 15, and it will be seen that he himself, when pleading for the charge of my Flocks, and boasting of the wonders that good management would produce, actually estimated the Wool alone  of his very first clip --- that is in the end of 1837, at  £1,700 !  In fact, it yielded but  £698  16s.  10d.
   Observe next, that when Mr. Jones's Agency yielded me £1,169 1s. 2d. per annum: it was before the "Joint Flocks" had attained their maximum, and the contrast becomes still more striking and remarkable!
       It is also important to observe that 1837,38, and 39, had passed before the great depreciation took place in the value of New South Wales property.
        This exposure of the conduct of Mr. Patrick Leslie in regard to the out turn of m Wool consignments, and the non-appearance of any other remittance whatever, which forms so striking a contrast to Mr. Jones's long and satisfactory Agency of my affairs, brings me naturally to the consideration of Accounts.
      Those delivered to Mr. Walters on the 31st October 1843, have, upon examination, been found so constructed as to become entitled to the appellation of " a mass of mystification; " and accordingly, it has been decided not to incur the trouble and expense of printing, upon documents that could throw no light whatever upon the by-gone matters to which they are stated by Mr. Patrick Leslie to relate. One perfectly qualified for dealing with entangled accounts, acknowledges his inability to class the charges contained in these under heads that could lead to any satisfactory elucidation of the matters in dispute, and consequently, the task has not been undertaken.
       There is one exception, however, and I give it the benefit of insertion, because it has a great and distinctive merit over the other Accounts---that of being intelligible.