A NEW BILL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1535, 3 September 1912, Page 4

A NEW BILL.

TO PROTECT .INFIRM PEESONS. The Hon. H. D. Bell, Minister for Internal Affairs, will move the second reading in the Legislative Council to-day of the "Aged and Infirm ■ Persons' Protection Bill," if other business taking proccdoncc on the Order Paper does not claim all tho Council's time. ■ The title of the Bill fairly cxnlains its object. It enacts that in cases "in which a person 'is by rcasoii of age, disease, illness, or physical or mental infirmity unable wholly or partially to manage his affairs, subject to undue influences in.respect to his estate or the disposition thereof, or otherwise in a position which in the opinion of the Supreme Court renders it necessary in the interest of such person. < that his property should bo protected, the Court may make a protection order. Application for sucih an order may bo niado by tho person whoso property is affected, by any near relative by blood or by marriage, by the Publio Trustee, or by tiny other person who shall adduce proof of circumstances which in the opinion of tho. Court make it proper that he slfonld'nlafco l th6 , la'p'pli , eatibri;' , 'Under tho order a manager may beVppointed to administer the estate, and, unless tho Public Trustee be appointed, tho junnager may bo required to give security. Where a'person other than tlw Publio Trustee is appointed manager, he may be required to pay to the Public Trustee a sum from tho funds of the protected estate.'not cxopoding ono per cent, of the receipts from the estato, such sums naid to form part of the Public Trust Account. The Court may direct in any case that any disposition by a protected person after the making of a protection order shall be made only after such precautions as tho Court thinks fit to direct, and any testamentary disposition made otherwise than as the Court shall so direct, shall be ineffectual for all purposes. The Court may also at its discretion review any will or codicil niado by a protected person prior to tho order, and if it can be ascertained that it does not express the present desire of the protected person, the Court may authorise the execution by tho protected person of a new will.