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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9180, 9 October 1888, Page 4

The unequivocal and determined refusal of the Public Trustee to enter into collusion with certain members ot the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board to evade the law, and divert a public trust by subterfuge, will produce a general sense of relief in the public mind. We regarded as an affront of a very Insulting kind, to make such & proposal to a gentleman entrusted by the State with probably the most confidential and responsible duties in the whole public service, and when it was declared —we know not on what unfounded authority—that the Public Trustee had intimated his intention ot issuing a lease to the Hospital Board so as toenablethem to erect a work house ou the Hospital site, though hardJy credit-

inc the extraordinary rumour, we felt inclined to attribute such a course to the utter demoralisation that had infected the administration of affairs in the colony. We are indeed gratified that the Public Trustee is clear of the dishonour ; and we sincerely sympathise with that gentleman in his having been made the victim of such a baseless slander. In reply to the Board, the Public Trustee lias succinctly and forcibly said, " I am unable to take the action desired ;" and one can hardly repress a feeling of amused gratification at the plain and honest language in which his legal advisers, Messrs. Brookfield, lay down the law on the subject. And can we credit our own eyes, when we read that notwithstanding all this, the indefatigable supporters of the idea of a workhouse on the Hospital site actually have the cool effrontery to think that they can, by shifting the subterfuge a little, and designing a new disguise, coax or cajole the Public Trustee into allowing the diversion of the trust? In vain is the net laid in the sight of any bird, and the Public Trustee must be a blind bird indeed, and a very silly bird, if he is capable of being caught, so clumsily. To him the whole people of Auckland will feel indeed grateful —if public officers' acting honestly is a legitimate ground of gratitude. Still, the public will feel grateful for liis relieving them from the unpleasant feeling of thinking that he had betrayed his trust, and played into the hands of a little coterie that-—for what reasons. Heaven only knows —have set themselves up in opposition to the indignant feelings of the community, and have resorted to all sorts of artifices, tirst to prevent, and then to delay tin , building of a Refuge ; and then to have it located so as to do dishonour to tin , city, and a wrong to the best interests of the aged people, for whom it is intended. Verily, if Mr. Costley knew what is being done with his several legacies, the poor old kind-hearted man Jnight almost turn in his grave.