PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE METHODS TO THE EDITOR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 68, 17 September 1912, Page 4

PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE METHODS TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,— l was greatly amused to read the diatribe of Dr. Fitcheft as to the methods allegedly adopted by the Public Trust Office. I desire to give a flat contradiction to several of his statements. The Public Trust Office does not since his accession to office (although it did fo fbfmerly) permit a solicitor previously ticting for tho dead man to continue actihg For tho estate, nor does it abstain from active interference with ordinary legal business, as, for example, by quoting such charges for legal work as* no solicitor in practice vyould for a moment regard as adequate in view of his responsibility to his client. That this and other objectionable practices obtain 1 in the Public Trust Office is evidenced very strongly by the numerous complaints now before the Wellington Law Society, and made by practitioners, as to the unfair and under-cutting methods adopted sinco Dr. Fitcbett attained to office. None of his predecessors did these things, and the result is that every lawyer is now up in arms against the Public Trust Office. Th» latest instance is that the Public Trustee offers to put through all the legal wofk in connection with local body loans from his office for a charge of 2s 6d per £100, which means that the office takes the responsibility of the correctness of the piocedure and the preparation of the documents in connection with, say, a £10,000 loan, for the- munificent sum of £12 10s. I need hardly say that no legal practitioner of any standing would care to do tjie legal work alone for such a sum, and that he would scout the idea of accepting for such a paltry amount the" responsibility to his client for the validity of a loan of such magnitude. If Dr. Fitohett ■were himself in practice, I venture with confidence to say that he would be one of tha last men in the profession to undertake such responsibility for such remuneration. As 1 do not desire to be still further discriminated against by the Publio Trust Office, I do not sign my name, but I trust that other members of the profession will take up tho matter, and that the new Minister for Justice will, in tho interests of the office, restrain tho present Public Trustoe from his wellknown antagonism to the members of his Own profession. — I am, etc., PRACTITIONER. '' Wellington, 13th September, 1912.