The commissioners shall cause their accounts to be balanced in each year to a period not less than one month before the annual general meeting at which they are to be produced, as after mentioned; and fourteen days at the least before such meeting the commissioners shall cause a full and true statement and account to be drawn out of the amount of all rates or assessments made, and of all contracts entered into, and of all monies received and expended, by virtue of this or the special Act, during the preceding year, and also of all debts then owing by the commissioners, and they shall cause such statement and account to be printed, and shall allow the same to remain for inspection at the office of the commissioners; and every creditor on the rates and assessments by this or the special Act, or any Act incorporated therewith, authorized to be made, and every person paying any such rate or assessment, or any person acting on behalf of any such creditor or ratepayer, may, at all reasonable times, inspect such statement and account, and compare the same with the books and documents relating thereto in the possession of the commissioners; and the clerk shall, on demand, furnish a printed copy of the said statement and account to every such creditor and rate-payer, without fee; and fourteen days at the least before the meeting for examining and settling such account the commissioners shall give public notice of such intended meeting, stating in such notice that the said statement and account are printed, and lie at the office of the commissioners ready for the inspection of the creditors and rate-payers or other parties interested.