I don't want to transfer the purchases because I can't find any of the iPad duplicates in purchases and I think it is the duplicates that are being referred to as missing.
The count of songs in the iPod app on the iPad is 31 greater than the count in iTunes on the computer and there are 33 duplicates (2 copies of the same song by the same artist of the same length) on the iPad and I know that at least some of these were not purchases from iTunes, but music I owned and loaded on the computer to get onto my original iPod several years ago. Also, I know of at least 1 item on the computer that is not on the iPad but that was intentional.
I get the feeling that there is no way to delete items from the Pad in iOs 4.3.2 I'm hesitant to do a synch because I believe there must have been a bug to create these duplicates in the first place.