PUBLIC TRUST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 285, 2 December 1933, Page 10

PUBLIC TRUST.

REPORT TO PARLIAMENT. SURPLUS OF £3040 SHOWN. _ WELLINGTON, this day. The Public Trustee, 3lr. J. W. Macdonald, in his annual report to Parliament, says that new business accepted for administration during the year amounted to £5,050,839, representing the aggregate value of 2748 estates. The aggregate would undoubtedly have been much greater had values been maintained on the high levels of past years. The present total is the largest recorded in the history of the Public Trust Office. ' The continuous and rapid expansion of the business of the Public Trust Office is shown by the following, giving the value of the estates and funds under administration at live-yearly intervals during the past 25 years:—l9oß, £5,531,058; 1913, £11,208,311; 1918, £17,153,031; 1923, £28.904,798; 1928, £44,155/>4B; 1933, £59,707,449.

During the year the administration af 2572 estates and funds of a total value of £1,932,009 was closed, but in addition to this, partial distributions not included in the above figures were made as circumstances permitted in states and funds the administration of which hacl not been completed by the close of the year. Necessarily the difficulties in the way of realising assets to advantage and getting in investments have hindered to a substantial extent the completion of the administration in cases where it has not been possible to arrange for the transfer of assets in specie to the beneficiaries, or where the assets have not been confined to readily saleable securities, or to moneys in the common fund of the Public Trust Office with the conse quent availability of capital immediately the periods of distribution arrive. Where these last-mentioned conditions have not obtained, the Public Trustee lias, so far as practicable in the individual estates, endeavoured to avoid forced realisations with their disadvantages, and to defer sales until a more

favourable market develops. Where in the circumstances of individual estates the yearly completion of the administration lias been possible without detrimental effects on the estate through forced realisations or otherwise, the executorship duties have been performed expeditiously, as will be seen from the fact that, of the 2572 estates closed during the year, 528 were both reported for administration and closed during the year. It is a necessary "consequence of the present conditions, which have resulted in a lower earning power of assets and in added difficulties both in the collection of rent, interest and other estate income and in the realisation of estate assets, that the revenue of the Department from commission charges has not shown an increase comparable with the growth of the business. To a large extent the remuneration for services which were rendered by the Public Trustee during the year under review will not be received until with an improvement in the general conditions a favourable market for realisation develops. The operations of the Department over the past year resulted in a surplus of £3040, after making substantial provision for possible losses of interest in respect of the investments.