The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Tuesday, July 14, 1891.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume V, Issue 633, 14 July 1891, Page 2

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

Tuesday, July 14, 1891.

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

THE PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE. The report of the Public Trust Commission, which is now to hand, gives the whole of the evidence taken before the Commission, and is a very voluminous document. A glance at the first few pages of evidence gives ample proof of the necessity for a Commission ; before the end is reached one feels the expense has been more than justified. No one will gainsay that a public institution of this nature should have public confidence in its integrity, impartiality, and business capacity. The evidence reveals such a startling state of things that public confidence must be shaken, and unless some reform is made in its management it would 'be little wonder if business should forsake it entirely. The officers of the department complain that they have been hampered by a want of legislation, but it is not to be deduced from the manner in which the powers already in their hands have been exercised, that they should be entrusted with greater powers. The Public Trustee appears to have depended to a great extent upon those under him, and there is no doubt that if his supervision had been more personal a great many of the defects which have been exposed could not have existed. To take the system of book-keeping, which was most cumbrous, no one appears to have been more surprised than Mr Hamerton himself, when told of the number and uses of the existing books. These books do not appear to have been kept in the manner which an ordinary commercial firm would exact, and it is especially humiliating in the case of a pbblic institution to read the following dialogue between the Chairman of tho Commission and the Public Trustee 1— C.—Would “slovenly” be too severe a term to apply to that account ? P.T.—■ Well I should say it is not neat. C.— Turn to folio 446. Look at the red-ink rulings and pencillings in that account. Would you call that approaching to decent book-keeping? P.T.—No. C.—Would you have tolerated that ? P.T.—No, I should not. The strictures of the Commissioners and of the Public Trustee are borne out when the disgraceful and untidy examples of pages from books attached to the report are inspected. These pages are scored and scored with red

and black inks, while large blots and smears appear on nearly every page. The clerks themselves have had either so little to do, or had so little respect for the Trust Ogice books, as to assist in this process of defacing them, and their handiwork is plainly visible. The question of how the books should be kept is, however, one of internal management. The public are really more concerned with the management and investment of funds. In the opening pages there appears the case of an investment which was made. The Property Tax valuation was XT5,000, the private valuation /TB,OOO, and although the Trustee is restricted to investments up to 50 per cent of the valuation, ZlO,OOO was advanced. In this case there had been two valuations sent in, the first at /"IS.OOO, which was withdrawn, and the second and larger amount substituted. The Trustee did not appear to consider a difference of /3000 between the two valuations should make him suspicious of the person borrowing. No wonder, when these things happen with a Board of which the Property Tax Commissioner is a member, that the Chairman should ejaculate that the Property Tax was borne unequally by the people of the colony, and that the Government was being done out of a large amount of direct taxation. The Public Trustee said in no case was the Property Tax valuation up to private valuation. There is much food for reflection in this statement, for those who object to an Income Tax on the ground that true returns would not be forthcoming. But not only have investments been made injudiciously. In many cases the mortgage money has not been realised. The estates have been bought in by the mortgagee, and yet these appear on the balance sheets as existing securities, and gave the Commissioners cause to report that the supposed audit by the Government Audit Department was a sham and delusion. Where the Public Trustee or his agents have come into contact with persons claiming under estates of . deceased persons, in many cases great friction has been apparent—much more so than could happen in the case of an individual as Trustee. Slight wishes of the relatives have not been conformed to, and properties which by retention for a short time would give good results have been forced into the market. The charges of lhe Department have been in many cases excessive, while, although a solicitor was retained by the Department, at a salary of £soo per annum, large amounts from various estates have been swallowed up in legal expenses, over /T 3,000 being absorbed in this way. There has also been great delay in many cases in realising estates, and communications with the clients have been hampered with a red-tapeism which did not conduce to the easy working, or the extension of the business.

The enquiry touched to a great extent upon the head office, but there were also complaints against agents in nearly every part of the Colony. For the most part these consist of discourtesy, and, so far as other matters are concerned, can generally be traced to the unfortunate way in which matters have been worked from headquarters. With reference to the Gisborne Agency two allegations were made by Mr W. L. Rees. The first was that the local agent was a partizan in politics, and had used his influence in favor of Mr Arthur, Even if this were so, we take it it would rather be the failing of the individual than the office which he represents. It was also urged that he refused to forward an application for a loan to the head office until a procuration fee was guaranteed. This, however, turned out to have been a practice allowed by the Public Trustee, and, although objectionable, it cannot be the agent’s fault if he complied with the rules of the office. A rather more serious matter arises out of the sale by the Public Trustee of Mr Gannon’s properties. The evidence on this particular transaction is as instructive as it is interesting. It appears that Mr Gannon borrowed /■9OO of the Gisborne Harbor Board’s funds. This was repayable in June, 1894. The interest by the mortgage was payable in advance every six months. On December 29, 1888, about ,£36 wasdue. On June 25,1889, the properties were sold for the interest, which, it will be noticed, was not really earned, although it was due in advance. Before the sale an offer was made to pay a certain amount, an offer which the Trustee says he would have accepted at once in Wellington without a second thought. But it appears that those who acted for the Trustee did not consider they had any discretion in the matter, and the sale was forced on. In other mortgages the Trustee has allowed the interest to run on for years before attempting to force a sale. In this instance the Trustee appears to have been strongly recommended to sell because the security was not considered good. The amount realised was /1,174 4s gd. The money due on mortgage before the sale was ZLO3O 17s nd. The costs of effecting the sale amounted to £l 6B 19s 3d. One section, it is said, would have brought /■2O an acre, instead of /’l4, but for Mr Gannon’s threat of litigation. This would have made a difference of Z"54. When the whole transaction is complete there will still be a profit of 5 odd on the transaction. One cannot say this security was so bad as to necessitate such a sacrifice, and when we remember that Mr Gannon was after, wards compelled to file his petition in bankruptcy, that gentleman's creditors have a right to complain of the squandering of property which should have gone to meet their just claims. From what we can gather there appears to have been some strong personal feeling in the matter, and there are Other circumstances in this particular case of which the real significance can only be grasped by a perusal of the evidence, which we have not space to give ver« batim.

We have not been able yet to go through the whole of the voluminous evidence, but we have seen sufficient to bear out the Commissioners' report, “that in the administration of estates the treatment by the Public Trustee of the moneys and assets has proved to have been imprudent and unwise; and the result appears to show in many cases, the persons entitled to the benefits of such estates have been treated in a somewhat arbitrary and Cruel mariner,”