The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Saturday, June 27, 1891. PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume V, Issue 626, 27 June 1891, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Saturday, June 27, 1891. PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’at at be thy country's, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

The report on the Public Trust Office shows a lamentable state of things, but the exposures will no doubt be of great benefit in the long run. For a time it may shake public confidence. That, however, will only be for a brief period if proper steps are taken to remedy the evils, and it is patent that such steps are being taken. Mr Waburton, who is to be appointed to the head of the department, is a shrewd and reliable man, with special ability to test the value of investments Mr Duncan, the new chief clerk, is looked up to as an officer qualified to take a leading place in the conduct of all financial matters. With better regulations to control the Office it ought soon to regain its lost position, and have a career of greater prosperity than ever. Of Mr Hammerton it is fair to point out how he has been treated in one respect. The H.B. Herald correspondent wires :—Time after time during the last 15 or 16 years the Public Trustee has drawn attention to the necessity for an alteration in the constitution of the office, and expressed an opinion that the responsibility of his position was greater than any single man should be required to bear. In 1885 or 1886 he asked the Colonial Treasurer to obtain from Parliament authority to appoint a deputy and assistant trustee, and to Sir Harry Atkinson he strongly expressed hie opinion that the office should be placed in commission under three officers, as in the case of the Railway Department. He actually prepared a bill to effect this and it was approved by Sir Harry Atkinson, but nothing was done. Every year from 188 1, with three exception’s, Mr Hammerton placed draft bills for the reform and reconstitution of his office before the Ministry of the day, but without effect. In 1883 a bill was prepared by Mr Stafford to put the office on a satisfactory footing and in possession of proper and necessary powers, and since then that bill has been altered and added to periodically by the SolicitorGeneral and the Public Trustee so as to keep it up to date, but Ministers have never thought it worth their while to bring it before Parliament. Commenting upon these facts the Post to-night remarks : “ It would seem therefore that primarily the responsibility for the now revealed appalling disorganisation of the Public Trust Office rests with the Ministers who required Mr Hammerton to perform impossibilities. Ministers seem to have treated him as the Egyptians did the children of Israel. The Egyptians required a| full tale of bricks while refusing to Supply the

necessary material for making them. In considering Mr Hammerton’s present position this must not be forgotten.”