CAWTHRON INSTITUTE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19039, 8 December 1923, Page 17

CAWTHRON INSTITUTE.

APPOINTMENT OF TRUSTEES. (p£B United Press Association.) _ . NELSON. December 6. The VVnimea County Council and Harbour Board passed similar resolutions to the Oily Council, asking that legislation bo brought down giving effect to Mr Cawthron’s “obvious intention” that the trust should be held by persons bolding for the time being the offices named in the will. The first statement by any of the Cawthron trustees since Sir Francis Boll’s letter to Mr H. Atmore, M.P., wa s made by Mr H. R. Duncan (chairman of the Nelson Hnr- , hour Board). The suggestion that the board should approach the Government for legislation, ho said, was mainly because it seemed to him to imply a censure on the Cawthron trustees in connection with the recent appointment to fill the vacancy created by the death of Mr Harley, and bo strongly maintained that the appointment they had made was, from every point of view, a fit and proper one. It wag clear that many people failed to understand the true position. In the first place the interpretnton of Mr Cawthron’s will had been a matter for the Supremo Court, not for the trustees. _ The Full Court of five Supreme Court judges had given the wording of the will their careful consideration, and they had decided definitely: 1. That the persons holding the offices named in the will were to be trustees for life. 2 That no provision existed in the will for succession. Thus the trustees were governed in the matter of succession solely by the provisions of the Trustees Act. Under these circumstances, the trustees considered that in filling the vacancies on the Board of Trustees it was their duty to consider solely the welfare of the Cawthron Institute. It was not for them as laymen to place an interpretation nnon the wording of the will which five Supreme Court fudges had been unable to discover; The decision of the Supremo Court absolved them from considering anything but their duties as' laid down in the Trustees Act. and by the provisions of that Act it was their duty to appoint the person whom thev deemed most fit to hold the position of trustee. Acting, then in accordance with their dufv and their legal rights in what thev believed to be the besf- interest of the Cawthron Institute, the trustees, after careful inquiry, recently appointed Mr F. G. Gibbs as trustee in succession to the late Mr C. J. Harley. The trustees felt this appointment was particularly appropriate for another reason. In their investigations of Mr Cawtbvon’s affairs thev found that during the last few vears of his life he had renosed great confidence in Mr Gjhbs. who had. indeed, heen his chief adviser and practically his honorary secretary. Most of 'he schemes for the rmblio welfare which Mr Cawthron projected or carried out wore largely left in Mr Gibbs’s hands, notnblv the purchase of the Cawthron Park, the Cawtb ron organ, valuable gifts to the Nelson Instiute. and the loan and gift of large sums of money to the School of Music, and oho to the protected solar observatory and Oueen’s drive—schemes which were interfered with bv the outbreak of the war. and which Mr Cawthron did not lire to carry out. In making the appointment the trustees felt that their choice- would certainly have met with Mr Cawthrmdfl warm approval. Continuing, the chairman said that if the legislation contemplated made the office of trustee a rolling one, he was of the opinion ’hat the result would be a lack n f cen. tinuitv of policy, whirii would bn highly detrimental to the welfare of the institute The Cawthron Tnotit’-t- —rrukl Ao-nre in narJiamentarv and local body elections, and competitors for places on these bodies would be aseed if they were prepared to see th..t more attention was paid to work in this direction or that nr. indeed, if the v wouht nm change the whole Policy with rpe--d to tho obinctive of the institute This would be. ip hir opinion, against the best interests of the institute.