PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2524, 10 June 1909, Page 4

PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE.

NEW BUILDINGS AT WELLINGTON. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, June 9. The new Public Trust offices, erected at a cost of . £42,000 were formally opened to-day by the Prime Minister, in the presence of a representative gathering. The proceedings took the form of a luncheon, the Public Trustee, Mr. Poynton, being in the chair. Sir Joseph Ward proposed the toast of the prosperity of til© Public Trust Office. He said' that estates to the value of nearly £6,000,000 were under the office’s administration. He paid a tribute to the late Sir Julius Vogel, who had originated the office. Sketching the career of the Department, Sir Joseph Ward said that in its second year the office became self-supporting, and now had an annual excess of profits of about £IO,OOO in spite of the large concessions made in recent years. A fourth of the profits went to the reserve fund, but the Government had never exercised its privilege of taking threefourths of the profits into the consolidated fund. All it had taken was about £35,000, and the cost of the new offices would be. paid for out of profit. In conclusion he suggested the possibility of future reductions in the charges to those who did business with the Department.