CORRESPONDENCE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 70, 19 September 1912, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE

PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE METHODS TO THE ZDWOB. Sir,— l read with much interest .the ful* minations of "Practitioner" against the Public Trust, Office ahd the Public Trustee. The standard of good management, according to your, correspondent, w to be measured by the amount of legal work the Public Trustee gives out to "the profession,"' and it necp'-sarily follow?, according to your correspondent, that it is bad management to do all the legal wotk of an estnte in the office, and to go further and ghe the public the benefit of reduced charges for legal work. The lony and disinterested motives of your correspondent are apparent, I don't think. I a6k him four questions : *-> 1. On whose behalf was the Public Trust Office established— the legal profession or the public? 2. Have not the methods of the legal profession in its dealings with the public contributed to and made the greatness fct the office? 3. On whose does he so courageously attack tne office under the shelter of a, noni'de plume— on behalf of the legal profession or on behalf of the public? 4. Does he think the public will rise up and fmite the office for the benefit of the legal profession? He refers to the glorious practice of former Public Trustees of taking the ea«y path and propitiating the legal profession by douceurs in the form of legal work at the 'expense of the estate— work that could most probably be better done and done for nothing in the office. After such «i regime the advent of a gentleman such as the present Public Trustee is, of course, distasteful to gentlemen of the kidney of your correspondent. The public do not need to be told that a Public "Trustee actuated by a high sense of his duty to hi.i client* and the public generally in giving them benefits and privileges at the expense of the vested ihterests of a close corporation will not be popular with that corporation. It needs a. strong man to take that course. A weaker mah would falter before the wrath of your correspondent, and throw him a bone to go on with to buy his good will. Have not the legal profession always opposed any reform made in the interests of the public, ahd which took something from "the profession?'' One has only to lcok at their reception of the Land Transfer Act, with its cheaper charges to the public, ahd the Advances to Settlers Office, with its absence of heavy legal charges. Your correspondent is evidently also referring to the Public Trustee's statement that the office prepares for £1 Is conveyances and transfers to purchasers from estates. and so eaves the public large and unnecessary legal expenses, if they employ outside solicitors. The public can never understand'^ why a transfer for £1000 should be six or seven times more costly than one of £100. True, there is the extra cypher to be added by the office boy, at a salary probably of 10s per, week. He points, of course, to his additional pa.per responsibility. There must be something wrong with the scale of charges ot the profession when the Public Trustee catt do work like this at less than one-tenth of that scale, nnd after paying for the whole cost of a huge department make an annual profit of over £30,000. Your correspondent strongly condemns the smallnees of the fee, charged by the Public Trustee for carrying out and completing loans to local bodies— viz., 2s 6d per £100 of the loan. I rather think the ratepayers and local bodies generally will welcome the change, and they are hardly likely, "in the interests of "the office," to ask the Minister for Justice to "restrain the Public Trustee. ' The charges to local bodies for this work by private solicitors have long been notorious, and the subject of much unf avourablo comment. The public generally will in this respect commend the action of the Public Trustee in trying to break down a pernicious system ot bleeding local tfusfc' as the Advances to Settlers Office has been used to regulate the rate of interest charged by usurers, the State Firo Office" to regulate the premiums charged by private companies, bo will the force of .public opinion compel the Publio Trust Office to be sfcill further used deregulate and keep down the artificial stahdards of chatges bolstered up by the legal profession. What advantage is the administration of the office to bo to the public if the legal work that can, be and is done for nothing in that office is handed over to the legal profession a* a bribe to attempt to buy their good will? Your correspondent prates in general and vague terms of the unfair competition of the Publio Trust Office, but he Says nothing of a practice that is now notorious of usihg unfair means of talking people off the office by misrepresenting it. Yon hea-r that spoken of everywhere among the people of this district. However, the standard of education is increasing, and peoplo are beginning to think these matters out for themselves. I have had a good deal of busihess dealings with the Public Trust Office, and have always had a fair deal, which I am sorry to say I cannot always testify in respect of my dealings elsewhere. It-is-extremely amusing to read that rout coi respondent, "in the interests of the office,* is going to ask the Minister of Justice to cut off the privileges extended by the office to the public. "The public i will be dveply touched, and appreciate in a right spirit his touching solicitude for their interests and the ihterests of the office, which are bound up together. The Minister of Justice is hardly likely to attempt such an action. Those who know him know ho will not be the dupe of a certain section and attempt to take a course inimioal to the interests of . the community as a whole. t If any. Minister wishes to commit political suicide ,he Trtuld follow your correspondent's advice. The action pt publio opinion would be sure and' swift. A ease came under my notice some time back of the Publio Trustee's intervening and preventing an unfortunate borrower from being fleeced of ft heavy procuration fee for a loan raised by him through a third party from the office. Will ho put this in his li*t of grievances to'thc Minis^ tcv for Justice? Your correspondent, in his own interests, had better leave well alone. The Publio Trust Office and its present methods find favour with tho public (on whom it . and your correspondent live), and publio opinion will support it.— We arc, etc., • DODSON AND FOGG. 17th September, 1912.