PUBLIC FUNDS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 151, 28 June 1915, Page 6

PUBLIC FUNDS

DISPOSAL IN THE PASt .WHAT HAS BEEN DONE. Recently a correspondent, undeif the pen-name " Inquisitive," wrote to The Post 4s follows :-— " Now that we are all working so hard to provide for our ■wounded soldiers and their dependents, I should be pleased if you could enlighten me in regard to the disposal of similar fund 6 in the past. Is the capital co subscribed invested in the form of an annuity, or is the interest only paid out? Many who originally had claims on the Boer War funds and various others must require provision no longer, and are no such sums Available to add to our National Fund? for we shall require. alt 1 we can get and more." Thero has been no uniform eyetoni of administering or disposing of funds in the past; but the principle applied has generally been that, < in tho case of a, large fund where widows and orphans were to be provided for, the funds have been invested by the trustees and the interest only has been used. In other cases, where the need has been but temporary, the capital has been drawn on and the fund wound up as soon as possible. A gentleman who ha* been connected with the administration of many relief funds stated that it had not been the practice in the past' to leave any small surplus lying idle, or merely earning iriterest. If the purposes for which the money was intended had been fulfilled, tho trustees were communicated with, and they generally decided to transfer the balance. to some permanent institution which carried out work akin to that which had called for ,}Z raisln g of * special fund. It is. difficult to aay what funds have not been wound up in this way, but it is probable that those that have not are still required for their original purpose and could not be diverted without the consent of both beneficiaries and subscribers. As it would be impossible to learn the will of all subscribers, and as most beneficiaries of such funds are m poor circumstances and should not be robbed of the little aid afforded ™ em '« sue " tlla "efer is impracticable. The Penguin Fund has an unexpended balance, Jbub calls are still made upon it; and in any case any residue is due to a society which has for its object the relief of distress caused by shipwreck, which society contributed largely to the cause in the first instance. Some funds of long standing have been lodged with the Public Trustee, but he ha* no power under tho deed of trust to apply the funds, (Surplus or otherwise, to any purpose other than that named in the deed. Two such funds are those raised in connection with the Brunner disaster and the Kaitangata milling disaster. Beneficiaries under these funds still live. In the Kaitangata Fund in 1892 there was' a, balance of £9875, and by Act of Parliament in that year it wa* provided that this fund should bo allowed to accumulate as the nucleus of a coalmining accidents fund. To secure any money for patriotic purposes from either of these funds would require a special Act of Parliament. Recent funds placed under the care of the Public Trustee are those raised- for the relief of sufferers by the Huntly mining disaster and the Upper Hutt explosion, but these still serve their original purpose.