PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 40, 17 February 1931, Page 8

PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE

NEW ASSISTANT PUBLIC TRUSTEE

Tho Prime Minister announces that His Excellency the Governor-General-in-Council has, on his recommendation, appointed Mr. W. M. Barr to be Assistant Public Trustee, vice Mr. H. Turner, who was recently appointed to the position of Under-Secretary of Defence. Mr. Ban- received his early education at the old Te Aro School, gaining a scholarship there in 1891. During tho following three years he was at "Wellington College, where he was awarded a Levin Scholarship in 1893. He was appointed to the Public Trust Office as a cadet in 1894, under the late Mr. J. K. Warburton as Public Trustee, and the whole of his service has been with that Department. Apart from relieving, auditing, and inspecting work in all -branches of the office throughout New Zealand, Mr. Barr has been at Head Office in Wellington since his appointment to tho Public Trust Office staff. He has served under six Public Trustees, and has seen the office grow from a comparatively small business to a Dominion-wide organisation controlling assets exceeding 55 million pounds in value. Of the officers who were in the Department when Mr. Barr joined it, he is the only one now remaining on the present staff. When Mr. Barr joined the Public Trust Office the value of the estates under administration was only slightly in excess of £1,000,000, and the staff in Wellington consisted of 25 officers, while the permanent staff outside tho Head Office numbered only three, these being stationed at Grcyniouth and Christehureh. It is interesting to note, that at that time the office did not possess its own premises in Wellington, the business being carried on in three rooms in the National Mutual Building in Customhouse quay adjoining the Bank of New Zealand. Now the staff in Wellington alone numbers 243, and the office has its own buildings planned on modern lines, with officers on the permanent staff m all the more important centres throughout the Dominion, and the office representation by agents is confined to tho smaller towns. Among tho important positions which Mr. Barr has occupied are those of chief examiner,' accountant, inspector, and chief accountant, while in 1923, during the absence of the Public Trustee from Now Zealand, he acted as Deputy Assistant Public Trustee, and represented the Public Trustee on the Government Insurance Investment Board. When the Bural Intermediate Credit Act was passed in 1927 and the_ Public Trustee became the chief executive officer of tho board set up by that Act, Mr. Barr was appointed the board s chief accountant, the duties attaching to the position being additional to those performed as an officer of the Public Trust Department. He has occupied the position of chief accountant of the Public Trust Office since 1921. Mr. Barr has only recently resumed duty 'sifter .in extended tour abroad. During his absence he spent somn time in the Argentine and Brazil, and travelled through Groat Britain and tho Continont of Euro'"