THE PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10139, 29 November 1918, Page 4

THE PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE

Of nil our public institutions, those which show beet tho power of Governments to safeguard t.ho interests of tho individual by using the collective power cf tho State, form the group devoted to what may he called Provident Work, using the term in its widest sense. Those which insure against life risks, accident risks, fire risks, and old ago certainties, for example, have shown how well a democracy can conduct various businesses. In this beneficial class the Public Trust Office has made the most remarkable record. Ana naturally it lias been honoured by fl very substantial measure of public confidence. That confidence has been amply justified, not only by the ability with which the various businesses committed to its care have been conducted, giving reasonable profits at a cost phenomenally moderate, hut also by its success in adapting iis methods to tho vast increase of the amount and complexity of those businesses, leu years ago the value of the estates in the case of the Public Trust being returned at nearly six and a half millions, the fact was acclaimed as a huge record of public confidence. Todav tlie value returned has grown to well over seventeen millions. _ V/hat is now* the growth is on an increasing scale of measure, tho increase for the Inst year over its predecessor being no less than two millions sterling. During tho decade the funds have grown from £2,859,000 to a shade over nine millions, the annual interest credited to estates has risen from nearly £79,000 to £017,033, and for the last throe years bonuses have been divided of £25,000, £27,000, and £30,000. The income earned by tho Office has risen from £36,800 to £162,600, and its net profits, after making due provision for depreciation of buildings and equipment, have gone up from £10,850 to £63.603. Its buildings and accommodation stand now* a.t £IIO.OOO and without a shilling of debt. Tho management has justified the public confidence, not merely by the fact that tho credit of tho State is behind its values, but by the satisfactory returns it gives to those 'whom it cases of all carp. Tho rich clients are satisfied, and those who are not •wealthy realise that nowhere can they find so cheap and nrompfc a’management of their interests. Tho business, as the report shows, is for nil its huge proportions done in the simplest manner. -It has mot the requirements of its increasing business by suitable arrangements of proper decentralisation -and increased adequacy of supervision, and a steadiness of economical charges of all kinds which is little short ot” amazing. Its great and "growing want, obviously, is of competent officers. Hitherto tho Office has drawn freely from the ranks of the Public Service. But it has recognised that tho time lias come for a hotter method, more fair to tho Public Service and more satisfactory to itself. Well as the Public Service Ims answered to these growing calls, it cannot ho much longer subjected to them. The Office has therefore determined on tho systematic training ot a body of competent officers. Tho management will ho for them an excellent training in tho way they should go, and their growing numbers will keep abreast of the requirements of the growing public confidence in the institution. Tho future of this most useful department of tho Public Service may bo now said to he absolutely assured, for the solution of the many problems of State activity with which the war has brought us face to face, there is nothing more encouraging than the strikingly successful career of tho Public Trust Office.