PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20198, 28 March 1931, Page 16

PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE.

MR JUSTICE BLAIR'S CRITICISM. STATEMENT IN REPLY, 1 Mr Justice Blair, delivering a *oeerved judgment at Gisbome,. last week, made some remarks. on the conduct of the Public Trust Office. | Mr Justice Blair on that occasion said: : ■ ■■ "The Public Trustee advertises that he is prepared to makp wills gratuity ously where he is appointed executor. Such an advertisement can create a false impression in the .minds of ignorant ,people ? because the ad-. vertisement does not make it plain that the Public Trustee obtains his ' remuneration for such so-called gratuitous service from the commission he is paid for the administration of tho estate."- ' The Public Trustee has submitted to Thb Pebs3 for publication a very long statement in reply to Mr Justice Blair. Answering the Judge's stateI ment that the service in the making of j. a will by tho Public Trust Office may i not •be in fact gratuitous, the Public j Trustee cites a regulation dated December sth, 1929: <f For the preparation by tho Public Trustoe of. .a. will appointing the Public Trustee executor, no charge shall be made either at the time of preparation, or when the estate subsequently falls in for administration; 1 ' On the general question of the propriety of the Public Trustee advertising that the office will prepare wills free of - charge if the Public Trustee ia appointed executor, reference is made to, a conference between representatives of tho Law Society, Mr C. P. Skerrett, I. ,K;Oi (afterwards Sir Charles Skerrett, j -Chief Justice),'-and Mr A. Gray, K.C., ■ with the Public Trustee. As the outcome 1 of that conference, Mr Skerrett wrote: ! "In reviewing these advertisements, i. we have felt that we could not ob- | ■ ject to any; properly expressed state-,.. , ment by tho,,Public Trust Office that " it is prepared to prcpaTe .wills free of charge." .It is alsft stated that-tho-series of advertisements proposed to be used by the Public Trustee were subsequently approved by Mr. Skerrett and Mr Gra-y. . Mr justice Blair, in further remarks, said' that the chai'gos made by the Public TJcust Office would oiten exceed those for which a private practitioner would' be prepared to do the work, Answering thiii statement the Public Trustee points to certain advantages to .testators and i beneficiaries in< having' estates administered by the Public Trust Office, which, it is suggested,-might influence a'tes'' tatdr'in deciding to haVe liis estate so administered eVeh' the cost be higher. However, he disputes the fact that the charges are higher, and points ' to instances in which he claims that ; they are lower. j.