PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16564, 30 May 1914, Page 14

PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE.

MR G. W. RUSSELL'S CHARGES.

MINISTER OB 1 JUSTICE MAKES FURTHER REPLY.

In tho course of his address to a small gathering at Hawarden yesterday afternoon the Hon A. L. Herdman, Minister of Justice, replied to certain charges which ho said had been made or implied by the member for Avon, ilr Russell had said that the Minister, as a lawyer, was hostile to tho Public Trust Offico. and had done his best to hamper its business and throw the work into tho hands of private solicitors. The facts of the cage were that at tho suggestion of Mr H. G. Ell, M.P., and others the present Government had appointed Mr Hosking, K.C., and Mr Alexander Macintosh, general manager of Dalgety's Ltd., a commission to investigate the affairs of the Public Trust Office. Tho commission reported recommending that tho legal work of uie office should not be centralised in Wellington. It could be done much more expeditiously if given to outside firms; of solicitors in Dunedin, ChristchurcJi and Auckland than if it were done by tho legal department in Wellington. Thero was no bureau for giving freo legal advice, as Mr Russell seemed to think. The legal department of the ii'ublic Trust Office dealt with nothing but Trust Office business, and so long as tho speaker had charge of the office it would deal with nothing else. He had heartily approved of tho recommendations of tho commission, and was going to give effect to them. The speaker said he held in his hand a report from a responsible officer of the Public Trust Office in whicli it was stated that. " The office has received a great impetus to business by tho passing of the Amendment Act of last session, and when the full benefit to be derived from utilising the services of the offico is more widely known a considerable accession to its business will result." The report went on to refer in approving terms to the appointment of Messrs Tolhurst and Foster, and to tho provisions for the appointment of officers of the Department as advisory trustees, for the appointment 6f the Public Trusteo as a guardian trustee, and to the provision that beneficiaries might employ a solicitor to investigate the Public' Trustee's administration of the estate in which they were interested. These and many other developments which added to the utility of the Department had been inaugurated by tho present Government. So far from starving the Public Trust Office the present Government had greatly increased the expenditure upon it. Tho annual salary list had risen from £27,030 to £34,680 since tho present Government took office, and thero had been forty-five appointments as against eighteen resignations during the present Government's period of office. In conclusion Mr Herdman asked his hearers whose story was hest worthy of credence — that of Mr Russell or that of a responsible officer of the Department who had no political bias.