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 Chapter 9
Accounting for heritage assets and biological assets

Review questions
9.1 Characteristics of heritage assets include:
• They frequently have some unique cultural, historic or environmental attributes.
• They typically have limited alternative uses.
• They are typically controlled by government (however, there are exceptions to this).
• There is often an inability to deny access to the asset.
• They often generate negative net cash flows.
• There are frequently restrictions on how the asset can be used and if or when it can be
disposed.

9.2 Heritage assets are more likely to have restrictions on their use and disposal and they are
more likely to generate expenses that are in excess of any revenues that are generated. They
are not typically acquired or held with the expectation of generating positive net cash flows
either through continued use or disposal. Unlike assets that are typically held by private
sector entities, those entities that hold heritage assets will typically be unable to deny access
by others to the resource. Being unique in nature, heritage assets typically pose difficult
valuation issues, relative to other assets.

9.3 This is an issue on which students may have different views. Issues which should be
considered include whether the requisite degree of control exists in relation to heritage
assets and whether heritage assets are expected to generate future economic benefits that are
probable and measurable. The text describes a number of factors which may indicate that
heritage assets are not clearly assets as defined in the conceptual framework. These factors
are:
• Heritage assets often do not provide economic benefits.
• Determination of ‘control’ is problematic.
• The benefits are difficult to quantify in monetary terms.
At a broader level, another issue is whether there is actually a demand for financial
information pertaining to heritage assets. Is such information useful for assessing the
performance of those responsible for managing or maintaining the heritage assets? Should
those in charge of looking after heritage assets be accountable for the financial performance
of such assets, or should they be accountable for other non-financial aspects associated with
the heritage asset’s use? Valuation of heritage assets can be a costly exercise and, as such,
the activity should only be undertaken if there are some associated benefits. To date,
demand for financial information about heritage assets has not been clearly established.

9.4 This is an issue that generates a wide variety of opinions. Authors such as Carnegie and
West would argue that accrual accounting emphasises measures of performance such as
‘profits’, ‘return on assets’, and so forth. While performance evaluation based on financial
performance measures might be relevant to profit seeking entities that have many

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 stakeholders (such as shareholders) with an interest in the entities’ financial performance, it
is questionable whether entities that typically control heritage assets have financial
performance as one of their key performance criteria. There is also a view that once we start
using accrual accounting within particular organisations this in itself can shape the priorities
of the respective organisations and perhaps move them away from an emphasis on providing
social services towards actions that are directly tied to generating positive financial returns.
Students should be encouraged to consider, for example, whether accrual accounting— with
measures such as profit or loss—is appropriate for public hospitals? Does a focus on
financial indicators act to distract hospital managers (and managers of museums, galleries
etc) from the core reasons why such organisations exist.

9.5 The conceptual framework defines liabilities as:

a present obligation of the entity arising from past events, the settlement of which is
expected to result in an outflow from the entity of resources embodying economic
benefits.
There are three key components in this liability definition, these being:
(i) There must be an expected future disposition of economic benefits to other entities.
(ii) There must be a present obligation.
(iii) A past transaction or other event must have created the obligation.
At issue here is whether there is a present obligation to transfer funds in the future to parties
that are external to the organisation. Arguably, there is no such obligation, and although the
heritage ‘asset’ may be likely to generate negative net cash flows in the future this in itself
would not be sufficient to say that it is a liability.

9.6 The longevity of heritage or infrastructure assets means that their historical cost or initial
carrying amount is unlikely to remain relevant for economic decision making, including an
assessment of accountability over the life of the asset. Although specific guidance on the
valuation of heritage assets is not provided in AASB 116, paragraph 33 requires that:
If there is no market-based evidence of fair value because of the specialised nature of
the items of property, plant and equipment, and the item is rarely sold, except as part of
a continuing business, an entity may need to estimate fair value using an income or a
depreciated replacement cost approach. This would imply that government departments
or other bodies who own infrastructure, heritage and community assets should revalue
them to depreciated replacement cost.
The requirement of AASB 116 still leaves unanswered the question of whether a depreciated
replacement cost approach is appropriate when, realistically, the fair value of the asset is not
able to be reliably determined using market-based evidence. As Carnegie and Wolnizer state
(1996, p. 87):
future economic benefits can only be imagined. The financial value of collections can
only properly be measured in monetary terms, by reference to the market, when
collection items have been deaccessioned and a resale market exists for them . . . [we do
not] embrace the notion of collections as assets for financial reporting purposes, except
in that specific situation.
Therefore, the problems involved in revaluing heritage assets relate to the fact that because
of their unique nature, it is very difficult to determine a ‘fair value’ or a replacement value.
As an example, assume that a museum held the space-suit worn by Neil Armstrong as he

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 made the first step by man upon the surface of the moon. They are seeking to revalue the
item—how would they determine the ‘fair value’ or the replacement cost? And if they use
replacement cost, is that really that appropriate in determining its heritage value?

9.7 Again, as with a number of the questions in this chapter, there is no correct answer. Rather,
students should be encouraged to consider various arguments for and against the proposal
that not-for-profit entities need different asset definitions to for-profit entities. Reference can
be made to the conceptual framework, which stipulates that the objective of ‘general
purpose financial reporting’ is to
Provide financial information about the reporting entity that is useful to existing and
potential investors, lenders and other creditors in making decisions about providing
resources to the entity. Those decisions involve buying, selling or holding equity and
debt instruments, and providing or settling loans and other forms of credit.
Following this objective some issues for us to consider are:
(i) In relation to assessing the performance of managers/custodians of heritage assets,
do the readers of financial statements require information to inform decisions about
the allocation of scarce resources?
(ii) Are the definitions of the elements of accounting provided in the conceptual
framework appropriate for managers of heritage assets (for example, managers of
museums and galleries) to be able to discharge their accountability, or is their
accountability not primarily related to financial performance data?

9.8 There would be many costs and benefits. Assigning reliable measurements to many of these
costs and benefits would be a particularly difficult exercise. Costs would include those costs
associated with developing the new requirements as well as the costs involved in producing
and disseminating the information. Whenever new accounting standards are issued there are
costs for financial statement users in terms of being able to read and understand the
requirements. When new accounting requirements are released which restrict the available
portfolio of accounting methods there may also be costs imposed on both users and
preparers as methods which were considered to be most efficient in conveying the
performance of a particular entity may no longer be allowable under the new rules.
Paragraphs 42 to 45 of SAC 4 (no longer applicable within Australia) provided some
discussion on various costs and benefits associated with the release of new accounting
requirements. Paragraph 44 stated:
Standard setters and regulators of financial information need to employ processes
for gathering information about the merits of requirements they are proposing.
These processes can give insight into the perceptions of the various categories of
users about the costs and benefits of the requirements being considered. However, it
is unlikely that these processes will significantly reduce the need for judgement in
relation to costs and benefits.
Paragraph 45 stated:
Assessments of the costs and benefits of reporting particular items of financial
information may vary between individual preparers, auditors and other interested
parties. Therefore, if assessments of costs and benefits were to be made only by those
individuals, the assessments would be likely to be specific to the entity and unable to
have regard to the general benefits of financial reporting. Consequently, they may
fail to optimise the cost/benefit function of financial reporting generally and may

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 disregard the benefits likely to flow from the inter-entity comparability of financial
reports. In the process of setting Accounting Standards, Standard setters seek to
consider all costs and benefits in relation to financial reporting generally, and not
just as they pertain to individual reporting entities.
Considering the above quote, is it possible to consider ‘all costs and benefits’? The answer
to this would be ‘no’. The conceptual framework released in 2010 (and the following
material was also reproduced within the Exposure Draft of a revised conceptual framework
released in May 2015 by the IASB) provides specific material relating to cost being a
constraint on financial reporting. Specifically:
QC35 Cost is a pervasive constraint on the information that can be provided by financial
reporting. Reporting financial information imposes costs, and it is important that
those costs are justified by the benefits of reporting that information. There are
several types of costs and benefits to consider.
QC36 Providers of financial information expend most of the effort involved in collecting,
processing, verifying and disseminating financial information, but users ultimately
bear those costs in the form of reduced returns. Users of financial information also
incur costs of analysing and interpreting the information provided. If needed
information is not provided, users incur additional costs to obtain that information
elsewhere or to estimate it.
QC37 Reporting financial information that is relevant and faithfully represents what it
purports to represent helps users to make decisions with more confidence. This
results in more efficient functioning of capital markets and a lower cost of capital for
the economy as a whole. An individual investor, lender or other creditor also
receives benefits by making more informed decisions. However, it is not possible for
general purpose financial reports to provide all the information that every user finds
relevant.
QC38 In applying the cost constraint, the Board assesses whether the benefits of reporting
particular information are likely to justify the costs incurred to provide and use that
information. When applying the cost constraint in developing a proposed financial
reporting standard, the Board seeks information from providers of financial
information, users, auditors, academics and others about the expected nature and
quantity of the benefits and costs of that standard. In most situations, assessments
are based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative information.
QC39 Because of the inherent subjectivity, different individuals’ assessments of the costs
and benefits of reporting particular items of financial information will vary.
Therefore, the Board seeks to consider costs and benefits in relation to financial
reporting generally, and not just in relation to individual reporting entities. That
does not mean that assessments of costs and benefits always justify the same
reporting requirements for all entities. Differences may be appropriate because of
different sizes of entities, different ways of raising capital (publicly or privately),
different users’ needs or other factors.

9.9 Again, there is no right or wrong answer to this question. Alternative arguments are
provided in the chapter. If it was considered that the accountability of managers of heritage
assets is best demonstrated by numbers generated by conventional financial accounting
procedures (for example, profits) then valuations of the heritage assets would be appropriate.
Such valuations would enable the generation of such performance indicators as return on

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 assets. Increases or decreases in the valuations of the assets would also be included in
reported profits.
If we consider that the accountability of such managers is not well demonstrated by financial
numbers then we may question the necessity of requiring periodic valuations.

9.10 AASB141 Agriculture defines a biological asset as a ‘living animal or plant’. Biological
assets would include:
• trees held as part of a forestry operation
• animals held as part of a livestock operation
• orchards and vineyards
• aquaculture and fishery holdings.

9.11 As noted in the text, some of the unique characteristics include:

• Unlike most assets, biological assets have a natural capacity to grow and/or procreate
that directly affects the value of the asset.
• A great deal of the increase in value of the resource may be due to the input of free
goods, such as sun, air and water.
• Frequently, a great deal of the costs are incurred earlier in the life of the asset (for
example, the establishment of a forest), yet the economic benefits are not derived
until many years later.
• The production (growing cycle) of the assets may be particularly long (for example,
some forests may take in excess of 30 years to generate millable timber), with
resultant issues as to when the revenue should be recognised. In relation to a forest,
should we wait until the ultimate harvest before we recognise revenue?
• There is not necessarily any relationship between expenditure on the asset and the
ultimate returns, perhaps due to such things as droughts, flooding, variations in
qualities of soils, and so on.

9.12 Carnegie and Wolnizer would probably argue that valuing national parks held as heritage
assets in financial terms is an ‘accounting fiction’. Roberts, Staunton and Hagen, however,
would suggest that forests held for the purposes of milling should be valued on the basis of
their net market value.

9.13 The basis of their argument is that profits or losses should only take into account ‘real’
changes in the value of resources, that is, changes which adjust for price changes in the
underlying assets. For example, if an entity had only one asset at the beginning of the year
(perhaps a building) and the value of the asset increased due to market conditions then this
change in value should not, according to the approach discussed by Roberts, Staunton and
Hagen, be treated as part of the period’s profit or loss. Rather, the change should be credited
to a reserve which forms part of shareholders’ funds. This view is consistent with Roberts
(1988), an extract of which is provided in the text. There does seem to be merit to their
argument. However, this view is not consistent with the contents of a number of recently
released accounting standards (such as those that relate to general insurers, life insurers and
superannuation plans). Such standards require the change in the value of an asset to be fully
treated as part of the period’s profit or loss. AASB 141 also does not incorporate the views
of Roberts, Staunton and Hagen—it includes both the volume change and price change in

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 income (although paragraph 51 of AASB 141 recommends disclosures that separately
identify the physical changes and price changes). That paragraph states:

The fair value less costs to sell of a biological asset can change due to both physical
changes and price changes in the market. Separate disclosure of physical and price
changes is useful in appraising current period performance and future prospects,
particularly when there is a production cycle of more than one year. In such cases,
an entity is encouraged to disclose, by group or otherwise, the amount of change in
fair value less costs to sell included in profit or loss due to physical changes and due
to price changes. This information is generally less useful when the production cycle
is less than one year (for example, when raising chickens or growing cereal crops).

9.14 Lack of consistency in how particular items are accounted for across different reporting
entities is frequently cited as a reason to justify the development of an accounting standard.
Clearly, the development of an accounting standard should only be instigated when it is
considered that the benefits of reducing diversity (and thereby improving such information
attributes as comparability) exceeds the associated costs. If this cannot be established, then
the development of an accounting standard may be difficult to justify.
A counter argument to standardisation is that having a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach for
particular classes of assets ignores the fact that within the class of assets there may be
differences in the attributes of the assets. This would particularly be the case for different
types of biological assets and heritage assets. It also ignores the fact that different
organisations might have different types of stakeholders with different information demands
and expectations. Imposing uniformity and restricting the set of available accounting
techniques may reduce the efficiency with which reporting entities can provide information
to particular stakeholders.

Challenging questions
9.15 Whether we agree or disagree with the quoted comment is a matter of personal opinion.
Students should be assessed on the quality of their arguments.
From a financial reporting perspective, we are used to putting a monetary valuation on
resources that have ‘value’. But should we always do this? Students should be encouraged to
discuss this. Why do we actually ‘need’ to place a financial value on valuable resources? Is
this a case of accounting going too far, particularly when the specific resource is not
expected to generate any financial returns and where it has unique attributes that make
valuation problematic? Indeed, from an accounting perspective, can a resource be
considered to exist if there is no monetary valuation placed on it?
9.16 As with a number of the questions in this chapter, the answer here is a matter of personal
opinion. In part, the answer to this question will be linked to judgements about the
responsibilities and accountabilities of a museum. If we were to believe that the museum’s
major responsibility is to generate a profit, then we might want to see information about its
various items of income and expenditure.
But if we believe that the major responsibility of a museum is to supply a social service to
the community (such as providing education, a useful resource for research, custodian of
important heritage assets for future generations, entertainment, etc.) then we might not be
that interested in financial performance other than ensuring that the organisation is not
wasting financial resources. We might want information about (that is, ‘accounts’ of) the

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 number of visitors, and the satisfaction level of visitors and other users of the museum’s
assets (for example, researchers). We might also want descriptions of the types of
collections held by the museum and how they are being protected/safeguarded.
Again, described in this way, the purpose of providing the information would be for the
directors of the museum to demonstrate how they are performing in relation to the
expectations held by the museum’s stakeholders—that is, how they are performing relative
to stakeholder expectations. This is all tied to notions of corporate accountability, which
would require engagement with the museum’s stakeholders to determine what types of
information they want, and how they would like that information to be disclosed.
While museums should arguably provide various accounts of a non-financial nature (as
described above), they will nevertheless be required to provide financial information in
accordance with relevant accounting standards.
9.17 The basis of their argument would appear to be that the process of financial accounting is
being applied to issues where such application is not suited, or perhaps is illogical. They
argue that heritage assets are not really assets consistent with the definition provided in the
conceptual framework and that the information produced by valuing heritage assets in a
financial accounting sense is of very limited use. They argue that the accountability of
managers of heritage assets would be better assessed by using measures of a non-financial
nature; measures which amongst other things might indicate how the existing use of the
heritage assets provides social, cultural or environmental benefits to the community. There
is also an argument that if heritage assets are to be accounted for in financial terms, then the
managers of the heritage assets might be persuaded to utilise the assets in a way that
maximises the financial results associated with the assets, rather than perhaps using them in
ways which benefit the community. Instructors should encourage students to indicate
whether they agree or disagree with Carnegie and Wolnizer.

9.18 This question is intended to highlight the difficulties in undertaking such a valuation.
Students should be encouraged to provide and discuss alternative valuation approaches.
There is not a clear right or wrong answer but a crucial issue is whether students believe that
heritage assets, such as an artefact collection, should actually be valued in financial terms. Is
it an ‘accounting fiction’, as Carnegie and Wolnizer would probably suggest? If it is an
asset, what are the future economic benefits the asset generates, and what is the ‘best’ basis
to measure the value of these benefits? If a value of, say, $50 000 is attributed to the unique
artefact collection does this really mean it is ‘worth less’ than, say, an ancient butterfly
collection that has been valued at $60 000? From whose perspective? This question should
stimulate much debate.

9.19 Whether we agree with Carnegie and West will, obviously, be a matter of opinion. The basis
of their argument is that the values assigned to many heritage assets are arbitrary and
unreliable. In many respects it is hard not to disagree with their argument in that there
tends to be no ‘market’ for heritage assets because of their unique nature—hence the
reliability of any measure will be questionable. Also, even if they are to be valued on a
depreciated replacement value, there are problems associated with determining
replacement value because there would be no ready replacements for many such assets.
The ‘value’ inherent in many heritage assets comes from their ‘stories’—that is, what they
represent—and we are left to question whether it is really that relevant (and to whom?) to
place a financial value on heritage assets.

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9.20 The argument being provided here is consistent with the traditional ‘realisation principle’.
The argument is that income should not be recognised until such time that an actual
transaction occurs. We can consider particular parts of the quote from Charter:
• ‘… it does not reflect actual events’. This could be challenged. An increase in the market
price of an asset could be considered to be an ‘actual event’ (although, not a
‘transaction’) and one which could be verified by reference to recent sales of the same
commodity. A central point here is whether historical cost data is relevant, or whether
reference to the current market prices of similar assets is more relevant.

• ‘It’s accounting for what’s going to happen in the future, not what’s already happened.’
Part of this is true, as the actual market price is used as a guide to what the entity would
receive if it made a sale—which it will do at a future time. However, the increase in
market price has ‘already happened’ as at the end of the reporting period, and perhaps
should not be ignored. Remember, it is estimated market price at the end of the reporting
period.
• ‘An unrealised gain on lambs might not be worth a penny if they fall over and die before
sale time.’ This might be true, but the valuation would be based on probabilities and the
probability that they might ‘fall over and die’ might be quite low. Indeed, there is a
possibility that all assets might be destroyed, but we do not record them on this basis
because such events are not deemed to be probable. There is always a trade-off between
relevancy and representational faithfulness. To many users of financial statements,
market values are more relevant, even though they might not be as reliable as historical
costs. However, historical cost information might not be too relevant for many current
decisions. With the release of many recent Australian accounting standards it is clear
that there is an increasing preference by standard setters for valuations based on current
market values. Hence, there is a clear movement away from the traditional ‘realisation
principle’. Clearly, recording assets at market or fair values has direct implications for a
reporting entity’s profits and it is the possible volatility in profits which many managers
have objected to. Where there have been criticisms of AASB 1037 and its replacement
standard AASB 141, the criticism appears to relate more to assets that will not be sold
for many years (which might have many fluctuations in market values and will not
generate actual cash flows for many years), as opposed to assets which are near to sale.

9.21 As with many questions in this chapter, the answer will be a matter of opinion. There are
various beliefs and theories about what drives people to support or oppose particular
regulations. These theories can be applied to those people who are members of ‘senior
bodies’ within the accounting profession and therefore able to influence the accounting
standard-setting process. Corbett has obviously embraced the ‘self-interest’ model to try to
explain why senior accountants would lobby in favour of a ‘common set of accounting
standards’ for both the private and public sectors. This is consistent with the ‘economic
interest theories of regulation’ described in Chapter 3. These theories assume that all people,
including regulators, will support something only to the extent that it is their self-interest
(typically with self-interest tied to wealth maximisation) for them to do so.
By contrast, if we adopted a public interest theory of regulation (see Chapter 3) then we
might assume that the senior members of the accounting profession were favouring
particular accounting methods for the public sector because they believed that employing
such methods was in the general public interest (perhaps because it would help increase the
efficiency of the public sector).

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9.22 The council provides three reasons for not recognising its library collections as an asset: fair
value on acquisition is much less than cost; individual books are below a minimum for
capitalisation; and depreciation is difficult due to the variability of useful lives of individual
books. None of these criteria addresses the definition and recognition criteria of assets.
There are alternative views on the validity of recognising the ‘assets’ for statement of
financial position purposes. It could be argued that it is reasonable to assume that the books
have future economic benefits for the council, being resources that contribute to the facilities
and services provided to members of the community. The control over the future economic
benefits is established by the acquisition. The books are acquired at a cost that is not difficult
to measure. There does not appear to be any cause for concern about the probability of the
future economic benefits of books acquired. However, contrast these points with the position
embraced by Carnegie and Wolnizer, as discussed within the text. They would possibly
question whether the books generate any economic benefits to the party that controls the
books.
Returning to the matters raised by the council, the gap between cost and fair value, once the
books are acquired, is not relevant, because the council could adopt the cost model. Under
the cost model, if the recoverable amount of the books is less than the carrying amount, then
an impairment loss would be recognised.
The minimum amount adopted for the council’s capitalisation is an attempt to quantify
materiality. This raises an interesting question about the level of aggregation. For instance,
should the purchase of a set of encyclopaedia be considered as one set, or, say, 24 books?
Individual items may be immaterial but become material in aggregate. The library collection
consists of many books. Although the cost of each book might be immaterial, it does not
follow that the cost of the entire library collection is immaterial. Students may be quite
divided on the choice of an appropriate level of aggregation for judgements about
materiality.
Lastly, the question of depreciation raises some measurement difficulties after initial
recognition. However, this problem is not unique to the council. Many companies have a
variety of items comprising plant and machinery, with varied useful lives.
A practical solution may be for the library to estimate useful lives by categories, such as
paperbacks, hardcover books and reference material.
Arguably, the difficulty of depreciation may pose measurement problems. Students may
vary in their views as to whether it would be better to leave the books on the statement of
financial position because they are too difficult to depreciate.
For various reasons (materiality issues, measurement problems or perhaps rejection of the
notion that the books, as cultural assets, have any place on a statement of financial position)
alternative means of reporting this asset or cultural resource may be appropriate. One
alternative is to disclose one or more measures of value of the books in the notes to the
accounts. Suggestions include the contingent-valuation method, the travel-cost method,
estimated depreciated cost, replacement value or net realisable value. Alternatively, the
information provided might be non-financial.

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9.23
Dr Fertiliser expenses 10 000
Cr Cash/accounts payable 10 000
Fertiliser expenses—costs incurred in
maintaining biological assets

Dr Inventory 76 000
Cr Cash 12 000
Cr Revenue—grape harvest 64 000
Harvesting grapes—the agricultural produce
shall be measured at fair value less costs to
sell. The gain shall be recorded in profit or
loss

Dr Grapevines 5000
Cr Revaluation surplus 5000
Change in fair value of grapevines—the vines
would be considered to be bearer plants, and
they would be accounted for pursuant to
AASB 116. We have assumed that the
revaluation model has been adopted rather
than the cost model. We have ignored any
related taxation effects

9.24 (a) Costs incurred in maintaining biological assets

30 June 2019
Dr Expenses (salaries, fertiliser, etc.) 50 000
Cr Cash /Accounts payable 50 000
The expenses incurred in maintaining the biological assets are expensed as incurred
and are not capitalised.

(b) Harvesting of agricultural produce

23 June 2019
Dr Inventory 220 000
Cr Gain arising on recognition of harvested apples 220 000
The above entries are consistent with paragraphs 13 and 28 of AASB 141, which
state:
13. Agricultural produce harvested from an entity’s biological assets shall be
measured at its fair value less estimated point-of-sale costs at the point of
harvest.
28. A gain or loss arising on initial recognition of agricultural produce at fair
value less estimated point-of-sale costs shall be included in profit or loss for
the period in which it arises.

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 23 June 2019
Dr Picking and packing costs 15 000
Cr Cash/accounts payable 15 000
The picking and packaging costs would be treated as a cost of the period, and not treated as
point-of-sale costs, which would be offset against inventory.

(c) Sale of agricultural produce

30 June 2019
Dr Cash 210 000
Cr Sales revenue—mangoes 210 000

Dr Selling costs 3 000

Cr Cash/payables 3 000

30 June 2015
Dr Cost of goods sold 198 000
Cr Inventory 198 000

The cost of goods sold is determined as 90% x $220 000 = $198 000. The fair value less
estimated point-of-sale costs (previously recognised) is deemed to be ‘cost’ for the purposes
of inventory and, therefore, also for determining cost of goods sold. As noted above,
paragraph 13 of AASB 141 states:
Agricultural produce harvested from an entity’s biological assets shall be measured at
its fair value less estimated point-of-sale costs at the point of harvest. Such
measurement is the cost at that date when applying AASB 102 or another applicable
Standard.
Between the date of picking the mangoes, and the date of selling them (one week), there has
been a change in the value of the inventory. We are told that on 23 June, the date when they
were picked, the inventory had a fair value less estimated point-of-sale cost of $220 000.
When 90 per cent of the inventory was sold they were sold for $210 000, which was more
than was anticipated. Without a change in price the mangoes would have sold for $220 000
x 0.90, which equals $198 000. Yet Nambour Limited received $210 000, or $12 000 more
than was expected. With 10 per cent of the inventory on hand at reporting date, the question
becomes whether we should revalue the balance of inventory. The answer to this is ‘no’—
once inventory is measured at the point of harvest it cannot be revalued upwards—however,
if the net realisable value of the inventory fell below the notional ‘cost’ of the inventory then
there would need to be an inventory write-down.
(d) Changes in fair value of biological assets between the ends of the reporting periods
30 June 2019
Dr Mango trees 70 000
Cr Revaluation surplus 70 000
The above entry recognises the change in fair value of the mango trees ($550 000 – $480
000). The change in the fair value of mango trees—the trees would be considered to be
bearer plants—would be accounted for pursuant to AASB 116. We have assumed that the

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 revaluation model has been adopted rather than the cost model. We have ignored any related
taxation effects

9.25 Some of the potentially negative impacts that might result from recognising heritage assets
in the statement of financial position would include:
• The disclosure might convey the implication to financial statement readers that the
entity is at liberty to determine how the assets are used because it would appear that
the entity ‘controls’ the assets. This could potentially be misleading.
• Once we start using accrual accounting within particular organisations this in itself
can shape the priorities of the respective organisations and perhaps move them away
from an emphasis on providing social services towards actions that are directly tied
to generating positive financial returns.
• Tied to the above point, if heritage assets are to be accounted for in financial terms,
then the managers of the heritage assets might be persuaded to utilise the assets in a
way that maximises the financial results associated with the assets, rather than
perhaps using them in ways which benefit the community.
• Because of their unique nature, it is very difficult to determine a ‘fair value’ or a
replacement value. Therefore, issues about the reliability of measurement might arise
with heritage assets.

9.26 In this case, insurance premiums were apparently levied on the museum on the basis of the
valuations attributed to the collections. As the valuations were inflated, the insurance
premiums were also higher than they should have been.

This is a very significant over-valuation and does bring into question how relevant the
number is given that it took years for anybody to realise the extent of the over-valuation.
Was nobody paying much attention to the valuation, and is that why it could be overstated
for so long and why too much insurance was being paid? If so, we must question its
relevance.

Placing a valuation on such collections is obviously rather subjective and based on many
judgements. If only a very few people are able to do such valuations then perhaps there are
not many people who are prepared to question the accuracy of the numbers—but then again,
if nobody really understands the basis of the valuations, how relevant are they?

Mr Coles said the decrease in valuation did not affect the integrity or intrinsic value of the
collections or reflect fewer items in the collections. This is despite the fact that the valuation
was almost halved. Again, this really brings into question the relevance of such valuations
and what function is actually provided by placing a somewhat questionable valuation on
such collections. We really must question whether the accountability of museum managers
is assisted by such valuations.

9.27 Again, this newspaper extract provides information to suggest there is much debate and
uncertainty over how museum collections and other heritage assets should be valued.
Because museum collections are all rather unique and because there is not an active market
for such resources, any valuations will be based on various judgements. Depending on who
undertakes the valuation, there could be wide variations in the values attributed to a
collection. As we see in this case, a change in valuation method nearly halved the reported
value of the collection.

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 The new director of the museum emphasises that nothing about the actual collection has
changed other than the valuation methodology. It still performs the same functions. We are
again left with the question of how relevant a financial measure of the collection is. The
newspaper article highlights that the paragraph identifying the change in the valuation
methodology (in the annual report) was ‘little noticed’, which again points to a possible lack
of relevance. Students should be asked whether they believe there is really a logical need to
value collections in financial terms. They should be asked what information they believe
should be disclosed by museum managers—that is, what is the key to demonstrating the
accountability of museums?

9.28 In terms of whether the heritage ‘assets’ provide future economic benefits, they do provide
‘needed or desired services to beneficiaries’. However, asset recognition under the
conceptual framework relies upon probable economic benefits being generated for the
benefit of the entity that controls the source of the benefits—not benefits to the recipients of
the asset’s output or services. As Carnegie and Wolnizer (1999a, p. 18) state in relation to
items such as public collections held in places like museums or public art galleries:
In the case of public arts institutions, the objectives are non-commercial—they are
concerned with enhancing the intellectual capital of communities rather than
(necessarily) increasing the financial wealth of organisations.
Further, the community is clearly better off with the existence of monuments, parks,
historical museum collections and the like. However, can these benefits be considered
economic? Also, if the benefits are considered to be of a social nature, can or should they be
quantified in monetary terms?
Hence there are certainly some valid issues to be considered before we accept that heritage
assets meet the conceptual framework’s definition of assets. Nevertheless, accounting
regulators have generally accepted that heritage assets do meet the conceptual framework’s
definition.

9.29 We know that an entity must be able to demonstrate ‘control’ over an asset before it is
recognised for financial reporting purposes. Control can be defined as the capacity of a
reporting entity to benefit from the asset and to deny or regulate the access of others to that
benefit.
In relation to heritage assets, there are some specific issues that pertain to ‘control’ and that
might lead to some questions about whether the objects in question should be recognised as
assets. One issue to consider is the identity of the department that ultimately controls an
asset. As Burritt and Gibson (1993, p. 20) state:
In considering heritage assets, there is considerable uncertainty as to whether control
rests at the Federal, State or Local Government level. Many of these assets, particularly
those of an environmental nature, are owned by the states, but are subject to varying
degrees of control by the government.
Such issues would need to be resolved before an asset can be recognised by a particular
department or entity.
Within the private sector, it is generally possible to deny others access to assets that are in a
private entity’s control. For heritage assets, however, it is typically difficult to exclude
access. For example, national parks, monuments, museums or botanical gardens are
typically accessible to everybody. However, the departments that are charged with
maintaining the heritage assets will typically also have other assets to which they can clearly

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9–13
 regulate access—for example, their motor vehicles. At issue is whether heritage assets
should be included within the statement of financial position along with other assets such as
motor vehicles where determination of control is less problematic.
There are also restrictions (some of them statutory) on what can be done with an asset. For
example, it might be that an asset may not be disposed of. Whether such a restriction
constitutes lack of ‘control’ cannot be clearly determined. Hence there is not a definitive
answer to the question of whether heritage assets meet the requirement of ‘control’.
9.30 (a) The answer to this is very much a matter of opinion. This question should provide the
basis for a lot of debate.
On balance, the material in the chapter would probably lean towards the answer that we
should not place a financial value on a possum—but this reflects the opinions of the
author of this book. Others would disagree, and would believe it is correct to value
possums, and perhaps just about every other thing that exists on the planet.
But what is the purpose of valuing a possum in financial terms? Who determines the
correct value? Will future generations come up with the same value? As a point in
question, consider the plight of whales in Australia many decades ago. As an animal in
the wild, they were obviously valued very lowly by people at the time such that they
were hunted to near extinction. People saw them as more valuable when they were dead
because of what could be produced from them. Government intervention was eventually
introduced to protect them.
If possums were valued lowly now, perhaps because we do not fully understand their
value to the ecosystem, then we might decide not to protect them (perhaps because the
trees they are in are valuable for making paper). They might be pushed to extinction.
The very act of valuing things in financial terms will arguably cause us to consider other
alternatives—also in financial terms—such that the option that provides the highest
economic benefit, or the lowest economic cost, will be the option that is selected.
Many years ago the Kakadu rainforest was valued in financial terms to see if its value
was higher than the value that would be generated by mining. Thankfully, the value
attributed to Kakadu was high enough at the time to provide a basis for rejecting the
mining alternatives. But if this was done again in the future, might the result be the
same? At issue here is why we would do this. If something is considered to be important
to ecosystems and to future generations, should this not be enough to simply say we
need to protect it? Why do things in nature need to be valued in financial terms by a
man-made system of measurement? Doing so places humans and markets at the apex of
all things—something with which not everyone is necessarily in agreement.
It is interesting to note that the Integrated Reporting Framework—simply referred to as
International <IR> Framework—developed by the International Integrated Reporting
Committee (see Chapter 30) embraces a systems approach wherein natural capital
(which includes things in nature) can be traded off against other forms of capital (which
are identified in that framework as financial, manufactured, intellectual, human and
social and relationship capital). This is a very contentious point for many people,
particularly those who believe that nature should not simply be treated as a resource in
the same way as other resources
(b) In part, this was answered in part (a) above. Again, it is a matter of opinion. Many
people believe that nature should not be considered in economic terms. It must be
protected in its own right. Valuations will be based on the preferences of particular
people at a particular point in time and will be determined using various assumptions
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 about the time value of money, and so forth. Arguably, accounting can be taken too far,
and in particular the practice of placing monetary valuations on species of animals or
plants or on ecosystems does seem somewhat absurd (at least to some of us).
9.31 There is no correct answer to this. Students’ answers should clearly provide a justification
for their opinion. Ideally the answer should address issues associated with the
responsibilities and accountabilities of those people in charge of heritage assets and whether
financial reporting is really the ‘best’ way to demonstrate their accountability. The potential
dysfunctional effects associated with using financial valuations could also be mentioned.
The difficulties associated with developing ‘reliable’ measurement could also be raised as
could issues associated with ‘control’.

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Other documents randomly have
different content
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Man
Outside
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: The Man Outside

Author: Evelyn E. Smith

Illustrator: Diane Dillon

Leo Dillon

Release date: March 1, 2016 [eBook #51337]

Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN

OUTSIDE ***
 THE MAN OUTSIDE

By EVELYN E. SMITH

Illustrated by DILLON

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

Galaxy Science Fiction August 1957.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
 No one, least of all Martin, could dispute
that a man's life should be guarded by his
kin—but by those who hadn't been born yet?

Nobody in the neighborhood was surprised when Martin's mother

disappeared and Ninian came to take care of him. Mothers had a
way of disappearing around those parts and the kids were often
better off without them. Martin was no exception. He'd never had it
this good while he was living with his old lady. As for his father,
Martin had never had one. He'd been a war baby, born of one of the
tides of soldiers—enemies and allies, both—that had engulfed the
country in successive waves and bought or taken the women. So
there was no trouble that way.
Sometimes he wondered who Ninian really was. Obviously that story
about her coming from the future was just a gag. Besides, if she
really was his great-great-grand-daughter, as she said, why would
she tell him to call her "Aunt Ninian"? Maybe he was only eleven, but
he'd been around and he knew just what the score was. At first he'd
thought maybe she was some new kind of social worker, but she
acted a little too crazy for that.
He loved to bait her, as he had loved to bait his mother. It was safer
with Ninian, though, because when he pushed her too far, she would
cry instead of mopping up the floor with him.
"But I can't understand," he would say, keeping his face straight.
"Why do you have to come from the future to protect me against
your cousin Conrad?"
"Because he's coming to kill you."
"Why should he kill me? I ain't done him nothing."
Ninian sighed. "He's dissatisfied with the current social order and
killing you is part of an elaborate plan he's formulated to change it.
You wouldn't understand."
"You're damn right. I don't understand. What's it all about in straight
gas?"
"Oh, just don't ask any questions," Ninian said petulantly. "When you
get older, someone will explain the whole thing to you."

So Martin held his peace, because, on the whole, he liked things the
way they were. Ninian really was the limit, though. All the people he
knew lived in scabrous tenement apartments like his, but she
seemed to think it was disgusting.
"So if you don't like it, clean it up," he suggested.
She looked at him as if he were out of his mind.
"Hire a maid, then!" he jeered.
And darned if that dope didn't go out and get a woman to come
clean up the place! He was so embarrassed, he didn't even dare
show his face in the streets—especially with the women buttonholing
him and demanding to know what gave. They tried talking to Ninian,
but she certainly knew how to give them the cold shoulder.
One day the truant officer came to ask why Martin hadn't been
coming to school. Very few of the neighborhood kids attended
classes very regularly, so this was just routine. But Ninian didn't
know that and she went into a real tizzy, babbling that Martin had
been sick and would make up the work. Martin nearly did get sick
from laughing so hard inside.
But he laughed out of the other side of his mouth when she went
out and hired a private tutor for him. A tutor—in that neighborhood!
Martin had to beat up every kid on the block before he could walk a
step without hearing "Fancy Pants!" yelled after him.
Ninian worried all the time. It wasn't that she cared what these
people thought of her, for she made no secret of regarding them as
little better than animals, but she was shy of attracting attention.
There were an awful lot of people in that neighborhood who felt
exactly the same way, only she didn't know that, either. She was
really pretty dumb, Martin thought, for all her fancy lingo.
"It's so hard to think these things out without any prior practical
application to go by," she told him.
He nodded, knowing what she meant was that everything was
coming out wrong. But he didn't try to help her; he just watched to
see what she'd do next. Already he had begun to assume the
detached role of a spectator.
When it became clear that his mother was never going to show up
again, Ninian bought one of those smallish, almost identical houses
that mushroom on the fringes of a city after every war, particularly
where intensive bombing has created a number of desirable building
sites.
"This is a much better neighborhood for a boy to grow up in," she
declared. "Besides, it's easier to keep an eye on you here."
And keep an eye on him she did—she or a rather foppish young man
who came to stay with them occasionally. Martin was told to call him
Uncle Raymond.
From time to time, there were other visitors—Uncles Ives and
Bartholomew and Olaf, Aunts Ottillie and Grania and Lalage, and
many more—all cousins to one another, he was told, all descendants
of his.

Martin was never left alone for a minute. He wasn't allowed to play
with the other kids in the new neighborhood. Not that their parents
would have let them, anyway. The adults obviously figured that if a
one-car family hired private tutors for their kid, there must be
something pretty wrong with him. So Martin and Ninian were just as
conspicuous as before. But he didn't tip her off. She was grown up;
she was supposed to know better than he did.
He lived well. He had food to eat that he'd never dreamed of before,
warm clothes that no one had ever worn before him. He was
surrounded by more luxury than he knew what to do with.
The furniture was the latest New Grand Rapids African modern.
There were tidy, colorful Picasso and Braque prints on the walls. And
every inch of the floor was modestly covered by carpeting, though
the walls were mostly unabashed glass. There were hot water and
heat all the time and a freezer well stocked with food—somewhat
erratically chosen, for Ninian didn't know much about meals.
The non-glass part of the house was of neat, natural-toned wood,
with a neat green lawn in front and a neat parti-colored garden in
back.
Martin missed the old neighborhood, though. He missed having
other kids to play with. He even missed his mother. Sure, she hadn't
given him enough to eat and she'd beaten him up so hard
sometimes that she'd nearly killed him—but then there had also
been times when she'd hugged and kissed him and soaked his collar
with her tears. She'd done all she could for him, supporting him in
the only way she knew how—and if respectable society didn't like it,
the hell with respectable society.
From Ninian and her cousins, there was only an impersonal
kindness. They made no bones about the fact that they were there
only to carry out a rather unpleasant duty. Though they were in the
house with him, in their minds and in their talk they were living in
another world—a world of warmth and peace and plenty where
nobody worked, except in the government service or the essential
professions. And they seemed to think even that kind of job was
pretty low-class, though better than actually doing anything with the
hands.
In their world, Martin came to understand, nobody worked with
hands; everything was done by machinery. All the people ever did
was wear pretty clothes and have good times and eat all they
wanted. There was no devastation, no war, no unhappiness, none of
the concomitants of normal living.
It was then that Martin began to realize that either the whole lot of
them were insane, or what Ninian had told him at first was the truth.
They came from the future.

When Martin was sixteen, Raymond took him aside for the talk
Ninian had promised five years before.
"The whole thing's all my brother Conrad's fault. You see, he's an
idealist," Raymond explained, pronouncing the last word with
distaste.
Martin nodded gravely. He was a quiet boy now, his brief past a dim
and rather ridiculous memory. Who could ever imagine him robbing
a grocery store or wielding a broken bottle now? He still was rather
undersized and he'd read so much that he'd weakened his eyes and
had to wear glasses. His face was pallid, because he spent little time
in the sun, and his speech rather overbred, his mentors from the
future having carefully eradicated all current vulgarities.
"And Conrad really got upset over the way Earth has been exploiting
the not so intelligent life-forms on the other planets," Raymond
continued. "Which is distressing—though, of course, it's not as if
they were people. Besides, the government has been talking about
passing laws to do away with the—well, abuses and things like that,
and I'm sure someday everything will come out all right. However,
Conrad is so impatient."
"I thought, in your world, machines did all the work," Martin
suggested.
"I've told you—our world is precisely the same as this one!"
Raymond snapped. "We just come a couple of centuries or so later,
that's all. But remember, our interests are identical. We're virtually
the same people ... although it is amazing what a difference two
hundred odd years of progress and polish can make in a species,
isn't it?"
He continued more mildly: "However, even you ought to be able to
understand that we can't make machinery without metal. We need
food. All that sort of thing comes from the out-system planets. And,
on those worlds, it's far cheaper to use native labor than to ship out
all that expensive machinery. After all, if we didn't give the natives
jobs, how would they manage to live?"
"How did they live before? Come to think of it, if you don't work,
how do you live now?... I don't mean in the now for me, but the
now for you," Martin explained laboriously. It was so difficult to live
in the past and think in the future.
"I'm trying to talk to you as if you were an adult," Raymond said,
"but if you will persist in these childish interruptions—"
"I'm sorry," Martin said.
But he wasn't, for by now he had little respect left for any of his
descendants. They were all exceedingly handsome and cultivated
young people, with superior educations, smooth ways of speaking
and considerable self-confidence, but they just weren't very bright.
And he had discovered that Raymond was perhaps the most
intelligent of the lot. Somewhere in that relatively short span of time,
his line or—more frightening—his race had lost something vital.
Unaware of the near-contempt in which his young ancestor held
him, Raymond went on blandly: "Anyhow, Conrad took it upon
himself to feel particularly guilty, because, he decided, if it hadn't
been for the fact that our great-grandfather discovered the super-
drive, we might never have reached the stars. Which is ridiculous—
his feeling guilty, I mean. Perhaps a great-grandfather is responsible
for his great-grandchildren, but a great-grandchild can hardly be
held accountable for his great-grandfather."
"How about a great-great-grandchild?" Martin couldn't help asking.

Raymond flushed a delicate pink. "Do you want to hear the rest of
this or don't you?"
"Oh, I do!" Martin said. He had pieced the whole thing together for
himself long since, but he wanted to hear how Raymond would put
it.
"Unfortunately, Professor Farkas has just perfected the time
transmitter. Those government scientists are so infernally officious—
always inventing such senseless things. It's supposed to be hush-
hush, but you know how news will leak out when one is always
desperate for a fresh topic of conversation."
Anyhow, Raymond went on to explain, Conrad had bribed one of
Farkas' assistants for a set of the plans. Conrad's idea had been to
go back in time and "eliminate!" their common great-grandfather. In
that way, there would be no space-drive, and, hence, the Terrestrials
would never get to the other planets and oppress the local
aborigines.
"Sounds like a good way of dealing with the problem," Martin
observed.
Raymond looked annoyed. "It's the adolescent way," he said, "to do
away with it, rather than find a solution. Would you destroy a whole
society in order to root out a single injustice?"
"Not if it were a good one otherwise."
"Well, there's your answer. Conrad got the apparatus built, or
perhaps he built it himself. One doesn't inquire too closely into such
matters. But when it came to the point, Conrad couldn't bear the
idea of eliminating our great-grandfather—because our great-
grandfather was such a good man, you know." Raymond's
expressive upper lip curled. "So Conrad decided to go further back
still and get rid of his great-grandfather's father—who'd been, by all
accounts, a pretty worthless character."
"That would be me, I suppose," Martin said quietly.
Raymond turned a deep rose. "Well, doesn't that just go to prove
you mustn't believe everything you hear?" The next sentence
tumbled out in a rush. "I wormed the whole thing out of him and all
of us—the other cousins and me—held a council of war, as it were,
and we decided it was our moral duty to go back in time ourselves
and protect you." He beamed at Martin.
The boy smiled slowly. "Of course. You had to. If Conrad succeeded
in eliminating me, then none of you would exist, would you?"
Raymond frowned. Then he shrugged cheerfully. "Well, you didn't
really suppose we were going to all this trouble and expense out of
sheer altruism, did you?" he asked, turning on the charm which all
the cousins possessed to a consternating degree.

Martin had, of course, no illusions on that score; he had learned long

ago that nobody did anything for nothing. But saying so was unwise.
"We bribed another set of plans out of another of the professor's
assistants," Raymond continued, as if Martin had answered, "and—
ah—induced a handicraft enthusiast to build the gadget for us."
Induced, Martin knew, could have meant anything from blackmail to
the use of the iron maiden.
"Then we were all ready to forestall Conrad. If one of us guarded
you night and day, he would never be able to carry out his plot. So
we made our counter-plan, set the machine as far back as it would
go—and here we are!"
"I see," Martin said.
Raymond didn't seem to think he really did. "After all," he pointed
out defensively, "whatever our motives, it has turned into a good
thing for you. Nice home, cultured companions, all the contemporary
conveniences, plus some handy anachronisms—I don't see what
more you could ask for. You're getting the best of all possible worlds.
Of course Ninian was a ninny to locate in a mercantile suburb where
any little thing out of the way will cause talk. How thankful I am that
our era has completely disposed of the mercantiles—"
"What did you do with them?" Martin asked.
But Raymond rushed on: "Soon as Ninian goes and I'm in full
charge, we'll get a more isolated place and run it on a far grander
scale. Ostentation—that's the way to live here and now; the richer
you are, the more eccentricity you can get away with. And," he
added, "I might as well be as comfortable as possible while I suffer
through this wretched historical stint."
"So Ninian's going," said Martin, wondering why the news made him
feel curiously desolate. Because, although he supposed he liked her
in a remote kind of way, he had no fondness for her—or she, he
knew, for him.
"Well, five years is rather a long stretch for any girl to spend in
exile," Raymond explained, "even though our life spans are a bit
longer than yours. Besides, you're getting too old now to be under
petticoat government." He looked inquisitively at Martin. "You're not
going to go all weepy and make a scene when she leaves, are you?"
"No...." Martin said hesitantly. "Oh, I suppose I will miss her. But we
aren't very close, so it won't make a real difference." That was the
sad part: he already knew it wouldn't make a difference.
Raymond clapped him on the shoulder. "I knew you weren't a sloppy
sentimentalist like Conrad. Though you do have rather a look of him,
you know."
Suddenly that seemed to make Conrad real. Martin felt a vague
stirring of alarm. He kept his voice composed, however. "How do you
plan to protect me when he comes?"
"Well, each one of us is armed to the teeth, of course," Raymond
said with modest pride, displaying something that looked like a
child's combination spaceman's gun and death ray, but which, Martin
had no doubt, was a perfectly genuine—and lethal—weapon. "And
we've got a rather elaborate burglar alarm system."
Martin inspected the system and made one or two changes in the
wiring which, he felt, would increase its efficiency. But still he was
dubious. "Maybe it'll work on someone coming from outside this
house, but do you think it will work on someone coming from
outside this time?"
"Never fear—it has a temporal radius," Raymond replied. "Factory
guarantee and all that."
"Just to be on the safe side," Martin said, "I think I'd better have
one of those guns, too."
"A splendid idea!" enthused Raymond. "I was just about to think of
that myself!"

When it came time for the parting, it was Ninian who cried—tears at
her own inadequacy, Martin knew, not of sorrow. He was getting
skillful at understanding his descendants, far better than they at
understanding him. But then they never really tried. Ninian kissed
him wetly on the cheek and said she was sure everything would
work out all right and that she'd come see him again. She never did,
though, except at the very last.
Raymond and Martin moved into a luxurious mansion in a remote
area. The site proved a well-chosen one; when the Second Atomic
War came, half a dozen years later, they weren't touched. Martin
was never sure whether this had been sheer luck or expert planning.
Probably luck, because his descendants were exceedingly inept
planners.
Few people in the world then could afford to live as stylishly as
Martin and his guardian. The place not only contained every possible
convenience and gadget but was crammed with bibelots and
antiques, carefully chosen by Raymond and disputed by Martin, for,
to the man from the future, all available artifacts were antiques.
Otherwise, Martin accepted his new surroundings. His sense of
wonder had become dulled by now and the pink pseudo-Spanish
castle—"architecturally dreadful, of course," Raymond had said, "but
so hilariously typical"—impressed him far less than had the suburban
split-level aquarium.
"How about a moat?" Martin suggested when they first came. "It
seems to go with a castle."

"Do you think a moat could stop Conrad?" Raymond asked, amused.
"No," Martin smiled, feeling rather silly, "but it would make the place
seem safer somehow."
The threat of Conrad was beginning to make him grow more and
more nervous. He got Raymond's permission to take two suits of
armor that stood in the front hall and present them to a local
museum, because several times he fancied he saw them move. He
also became an adept with the ray gun and changed the
surrounding landscape quite a bit with it, until Raymond warned that
this might lead Conrad to them.
During those early years, Martin's tutors were exchanged for the
higher-degreed ones that were now needful. The question inevitably
arose of what the youth's vocation in that life was going to be. At
least twenty of the cousins came back through time to hold one of
their vigorous family councils. Martin was still young enough to enjoy
such occasions, finding them vastly superior to all other forms of
entertainment.

"This sort of problem wouldn't arise in our day, Martin," Raymond

commented as he took his place at the head of the table, "because,
unless one specifically feels a call to some profession or other, one
just—well, drifts along happily."
"Ours is a wonderful world," Grania sighed at Martin. "I only wish we
could take you there. I'm sure you would like it."
"Don't be a fool, Grania!" Raymond snapped. "Well, Martin, have you
made up your mind what you want to be?"
Martin affected to think. "A physicist," he said, not without malice.
"Or perhaps an engineer."
There was a loud, excited chorus of dissent. He chuckled inwardly.
"Can't do that," Ives said. "Might pick up some concepts from us.
Don't know how; none of us knows a thing about science. But it
could happen. Subconscious osmosis, if there is such a thing. That
way, you might invent something ahead of time. And the fellow we
got the plans from particularly cautioned us against that. Changing
history. Dangerous."
"Might mess up our time frightfully," Bartholomew contributed,
"though, to be perfectly frank, I can't quite understand how."
"I am not going to sit down and explain the whole thing to you all
over again, Bart!" Raymond said impatiently. "Well, Martin?"
"What would you suggest?" Martin asked.
"How about becoming a painter? Art is eternal. And quite
gentlemanly. Besides, artists are always expected to be either behind
or ahead of their times."
"Furthermore," Ottillie added, "one more artist couldn't make much
difference in history. There were so many of them all through the
ages."
Martin couldn't hold back his question. "What was I, actually, in that
other time?"
There was a chilly silence.
"Let's not talk about it, dear," Lalage finally said. "Let's just be
thankful we've saved you from that!"
So drawing teachers were engaged and Martin became a very
competent second-rate artist. He knew he would never be able to
achieve first rank because, even though he was still so young, his
work was almost purely intellectual. The only emotion he seemed
able to feel was fear—the ever-present fear that someday he would
turn a corridor and walk into a man who looked like him—a man
who wanted to kill him for the sake of an ideal.
But the fear did not show in Martin's pictures. They were pretty
pictures.
Cousin Ives—now that Martin was older, he was told to call the
descendants cousin—next assumed guardianship. Ives took his
responsibilities more seriously than the others did. He even arranged
to have Martin's work shown at an art gallery. The paintings received
critical approval, but failed to evoke any enthusiasm. The modest
sale they enjoyed was mostly to interior decorators. Museums were
not interested.
"Takes time," Ives tried to reassure him. "One day they'll be buying
your pictures, Martin. Wait and see."
Ives was the only one of the descendants who seemed to think of
Martin as an individual. When his efforts to make contact with the
other young man failed, he got worried and decided that what
Martin needed was a change of air and scenery.
"'Course you can't go on the Grand Tour. Your son hasn't invented
space travel yet. But we can go see this world. What's left of it.
Tourists always like ruins best, anyway."
So he drew on the family's vast future resources and bought a yacht,
which Martin christened The Interregnum. They traveled about from
sea to ocean and from ocean to sea, touching at various ports and
making trips inland. Martin saw the civilized world—mostly in
fragments; the nearly intact semi-civilized world and the uncivilized
world, much the same as it had been for centuries. It was like
visiting an enormous museum; he couldn't seem to identify with his
own time any more.
The other cousins appeared to find the yacht a congenial head-
quarters, largely because they could spend so much time far away
from the contemporary inhabitants of the planet and relax and be
themselves. So they never moved back to land. Martin spent the rest
of his life on The Interregnum. He felt curiously safer from Conrad
there, although there was no valid reason why an ocean should stop
a traveler through time.
More cousins were in residence at once than ever before, because
they came for the ocean voyage. They spent most of their time
aboard ship, giving each other parties and playing an avant-garde
form of shuffleboard and gambling on future sporting events. That
last usually ended in a brawl, because one cousin was sure to accuse
another of having got advance information about the results.
Martin didn't care much for their company and associated with them
only when not to have done so would have been palpably rude. And,
though they were gregarious young people for the most part, they
didn't court his society. He suspected that he made them feel
uncomfortable.

He rather liked Ives, though. Sometimes the two of them would be

alone together; then Ives would tell Martin of the future world he
had come from. The picture drawn by Raymond and Ninian had not
been entirely accurate, Ives admitted. True, there was no war or
poverty on Earth proper, but that was because there were only a
couple of million people left on the planet. It was an enclave for the
highly privileged, highly interbred aristocracy, to which Martin's
descendants belonged by virtue of their distinguished ancestry.
"Rather feudal, isn't it?" Martin asked.
Ives agreed, adding that the system had, however, been deliberately
planned, rather than the result of haphazard natural development.
Everything potentially unpleasant, like the mercantiles, had been
deported.
"Not only natives livin' on the other worlds," Ives said as the two of
them stood at the ship's rail, surrounded by the limitless expanse of
some ocean or other. "People, too. Mostly lower classes, except for
officials and things. With wars and want and suffering," he added
regretfully, "same as in your day.... Like now, I mean," he corrected
himself. "Maybe it is worse, the way Conrad thinks. More planets for
us to make trouble on. Three that were habitable aren't any more.
Bombed. Very thorough job."
"Oh," Martin murmured, trying to sound shocked, horrified—
interested, even.
"Sometimes I'm not altogether sure Conrad was wrong," Ives said,
after a pause. "Tried to keep us from getting to the stars, hurting the
people—I expect you could call them people—there. Still—" he
smiled shamefacedly—"couldn't stand by and see my own way of life
destroyed, could I?"
"I suppose not," Martin said.
"Would take moral courage. I don't have it. None of us does, except
Conrad, and even he—" Ives looked out over the sea. "Must be a
better way out than Conrad's," he said without conviction. "And
everything will work out all right in the end. Bound to. No sense to—
to anything, if it doesn't." He glanced wistfully at Martin.
"I hope so," said Martin. But he couldn't hope; he couldn't feel; he
couldn't even seem to care.
During all this time, Conrad still did not put in an appearance. Martin
had gotten to be such a crack shot with the ray pistol that he almost
wished his descendant would show up, so there would be some
excitement. But he didn't come. And Martin got to thinking....
He always felt that if any of the cousins could have come to realize
the basic flaw in the elaborate plan they had concocted, it would
have been Ives. However, when the yacht touched at Tierra del
Fuego one bitter winter, Ives took a severe chill. They sent for a
doctor from the future—one of the descendants who had been
eccentric enough to take a medical degree—but he wasn't able to
save Ives. The body was buried in the frozen ground at Ushuaia, on
the southern tip of the continent, a hundred years or more before
the date of his birth.
A great many of the cousins turned up at the simple ceremony. All
were dressed in overwhelming black and showed a great deal of
grief. Raymond read the burial service, because they didn't dare
summon a clerical cousin from the future; they were afraid he might
prove rather stuffy about the entire undertaking.
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