PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5474, 18 February 1910, Page 4

PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE.

REDUCED CHARGES. WELLINGTON, Feb. 1-i: Mr J. W. i'pjilton, formerly l»ui> lie 'lrusree, fi\4K) roctntly, became secretary, f-o rhe livusury and Superintendent of the Stato UuarantceU Advances l>oard, wns presented todai r by his old -stall' Avii-h a massivo silver aah-er. T-he presentation waa made by; Sir Joseph \Vnrd, J-rhna Minister. Sir. Joseih WurA sard tho Public Trust: Office waa entirely free from political' c-ontrjol, and tho way in which 'tihe Depurt-nTPnt has moved ahead by leaps «nTI 'bounds was tho rea^oKt tribiute'to ihe coni'uioncc of the p.ublic in its atLiiinislratioii. It Was also a. strik'lng^ oxamivlo of the progress wf tho IlonAhiSoii. In a, very short ttfne tho b.usmiss had trebled and W'hjQjv one realised that the estates now under atlnwn'islratiion numiborod 50()O, and ran into tho large sum of £7,000,000, it spoke eloquently of tho large and varied, nature <# the work. He was pleased to be tjjble to announce that from April! 1 next a very large reduction would be made in the charges for dealing with business; Ttoo commission to be oharged would be 2J- per cent. on tiie first £10/000, and lij; per can't, on sums bpjxmd. that, instead of 5 percent, on the first £1000, 8 per cent on the next £3000, 2 percent on the next £6000, and 1J per cc»t. on sums over £10,000. Such, low charges meant fresh business flo^ tli© office, and it wx>uld. not ibe too much to anticipate that probably 1000 more wills per annum would come into the Department. Dynamita caps are dangerous things (says /the T a ihaj>e Times; . A local «u«n one time had occasion to • use Uyn-oairite caps and tfxpkjsive gc- ' lig'iiite ■avid whut he hatl iinishud the jo>l^ ho lha<i; trno cap left. H« v rapped this up in paper and put it on the kitchen mantel-piece. It remained there for some time, on* a recent morning, as the resident was ■ lighting; his lire, this package fell to [ t.'he 'heantih. He picked it up, ami, j thinking it was just a piece at p«per, ' tihrewit »Vto thj» fire. Almost i n - j stantly there was a fierce explosion. The door of the range flew to the kitchen table,, the kettle I)irmped har.l a^arnst the chinmcy, and various other pieces of range flew in all di-rect"i-otvs. Somo of ttie fire t.\-«s 1 U>wn out into the room, and the man's clothing was set on fire, though fortunately he was able to knock the flames out Ifefore they had. burnt to uny extent.