TRUSTEESHIP

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 28, 1 August 1924, Page 10

TRUSTEESHIP

AMENDING LEGISLATION.

The principal objective of the Trustee Amendment Bill, which was read a first lime in the Legislative Council yesterday afternoon, 'is to bring tbo law of New Zealand into conformity wiili (he law of Kngland so far as the powers of composition possessed by trustees are concerned.

The principal clause is in tho fame terms us section 21 of tho Imperial Trustees Act of 1893. It empowers an executor or adminslrator to pay or allow any debt or claim on-any evidence that he thinks sufficient, and permits executors and trustees to accept -• any composition or security for any debt on property claimed, and to compromise, compound, abandon, submit to arbitration, or otherwise settle any debt account, or claim relating to tho testator's or intestate's estate, without responsibility for any loss occasioned by any act done in good faith. The Bill repeals section 17 of the Administration Act, 1908, which defines the existing limited powers of composition possessed by administrators, and it al<=o repeals section 42 of the Finance Act, ia^ which was a temporary provision enabling trustees to grant a limited measure of relief to purchasers of trust property; this provision expired on 31st December, 1923. Clause 3 of the Bill enables trustees to invest trust moneys in any savings bank established under tho Savings Bank Act. 1908, and repeals a portion of the Finance -Vet 1920, which authorised the investment of trust funds with "approved institutions. Clause 4 does not alter tho law, but removes to the Trustee Act the substance of an amendment originally made in the Finance Act, 1920