B.—9a

32

RIDER. Office Legal Staff. As the lay member of the Commission, I desire to add as my personal expression of opinion, by way of further reference to this matter, that the attempt to set up a legal bureau—for so it may be described —in such a Department as that of the Public Trustee to undertake outdoor work is a very questionable and rash experiment, and involves serious responsibilities that it would be prudent to avoid. The discretion of the testators or beneficiaries should not be interfered with as regards the disposition of their legal business, and it would be well to abstain from conspicuously presenting alluring conditions in the direction of cheap law, synonymous, perhaps, with faulty law. In my opinion, the public and the Department itself would be better served from outside as regards much of the extraneous legal work now undertaken by practitioners comparatively inexperienced in outside or general business. A. Macintosh. Approximate Cost, of Paper. —Preparation, not given; printing (1,500 copies), £16.

By Authority : John Mackay, Government Printer. Wellington.—l9l3,

Price yd.]