PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XL, Issue 9079, 11 May 1891, Page 3

PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE.

PROBABLE ACTION OP THE GOVERNMENT.

The disclosures relative -to the Public Trust Office still continue almost to engross public attention in Wellington. Ministers have received explanation from the Public Trustee (Mi- Hamerton), the Chief Clerk (Mr C. D. DeCastro), the Accountant (Mr Ma«;uire), the Solicitor (Mr Wilson), and the Clerk (Mr Ronaldson), whoso action has been called in question. The explana tions of the five officers have not been published, and the officers themselves do not feel at liberty to give their side of the case in viow oE the Civil Service regnlations, bat it may be gathered from their evidence that the case amounts practically to a declaration that they did not see any harm in the proceedings to which exception is taken. A correspondent of the Christchurch Prest says :—": — " There seems little doubt that the case is being pressed somewhat harshly against them, but I believe they now admit (or some of them, at any rate), that their- conduct was injudicious or indiscreet, although they disclaim all notion of wrong-doing at the time. I have reason to believe also that in several instances the explanations place the proceedings in a very different light. Take for example the case of that missing lace which was taken home by an officer for his wife to value it, but which never again turned up until a search was instituted owing to enquiries by the present Royal Commission. I am informed that the very day on which the lace was taken home that officer received orders to proceed early rext morning to a country town and transact some important business. On his return to town some time after he was suddenly seized with severe illness and for many days his life was despaired of. He is only now slowly recovering. The lace was forgotten during his absence from town and subsequent imminent danger. Therts is not the slightest suggestion that he or his family attempted to make use of it or to dispose of it in any way. Then, again, that " valuable 'bracelet," of which so much has been heard, is only known of on the authority of a person who says he saw it among the effects of a deceased ■woman. I understand that this evidence is not corroborated, and that all the officers deny that any bracelet answering the description came to the office among the effects, but Ihey pay a gold baDgle (which might perhaps have been regarded by a man as a bracelet) was sold among the other things. An attempt has been made by one of tbe local papers to get up a scare about the landed investments, but it is apparently forgotten that these investments have always been managed by a Board, of which the Colonial Treasurer (of the day), Surveyor-General, Property Tax Coin'missioners, and other high officers are members, and stand on a totally different footing. The personal property was, upon the evidence of the Trnst officers themselves, dealt with in a distinctly careless way, goods being sent in a lump down to the auctioneer without any list being made out, the officers trusting wholly to the auctioneer's account sales. It must be remembered, too, that all the facts of which so much is now being made were voluntarily and unhesitatingly disclosed by the officers themselves to the Oommission. I hear that the Commissioners who are proceeding with their investigations will summon as a witness the former clerk of the deceased auctioneer who conducted the sales (he having recently returned to the colony), and that they will also invite Sir Harry Atkinson to offer any explanation he may think fit touching his purchase of certain watches from the Trustee, they being part of an intestate estate. They have invited the Auditor-General to explain what they deem the unsatisfactory auditing of the trust accounts by his Department. I have some reason to believe that Ministers, although they have not yet met formally to consider the matter, have virtually determined on the course to be taken, and that the whole Department will be reconstTtictad, from the head downwards. I believe that all the officers named will be suspended, and that an address will be moved in Parliament for the removal of the Public Trustee, and the Chief Clerk, the = *Accountant, and the Solicitor will be retired. Ab for the Clerk, who 5s the fifth of the ill-fated quintettte, as his offence appears to have consisted only in purchasing a dress coat, it is- possible that he may be let off more lightly. However, if the other four, have to go, some new and fairly lucrative appointments will require to be made, and rumour is already busy in speculation on the probable successors of the officers who are expected to be dispensed with. A general feeling prevails that should this course be taken with the four principal offenders it wiJl be very harsh treatment, and an excessive punishment for what ■was a mere* error in judgment At the same time, it "cannov be ignored that the recent disclosures have absolutely destroyed all public confidence in the Trust Office, that there is a veritable panic among persons who have propei ty under its care, and that no fresh business is likely to come to it until some safeguards shall be provided against the danger of a repetition of past experiences. Several cases have * already come under my notice of estates that were" about to be placed in charge of tbe Public Trust Office being put in the hands of private trustees instead. A strong feeling also exists that if the office is ever again to do any good there must be a State guarantee, asm the case of the Government Insurance Office, and that no loss can result to the colony or its taxpayers if the. Department is properly administered, while if so- important a public office is badly administered it falls very hard on the beneficiaries of estates thatfthey should have to bear it alone, especially when the Department contributes a considerable sum to the public revenue. If the personnel and system of the Department are reformed., so also will its basis have to be. As to the multiplicity of books and accounts, on which great stress has been laid, 1 hear that this has been greatly exaggerated, some of the so-called books being mere memoranda or note books. Certainly the most seems- to have been made or every point that could possibly be raised to damage the Trust office.

The Wellington correspondent of the Lyttelton Times says:— "The Public Troßtee, I may take this opportunity of mentioning, in universally regarded as most a upright and honorable man. There is great controversy at the street corners about him and his officers. " Why not buy i£ they paid the best price going i We all know things don't fetch market prices at auction." That is one side of the argument. Many of the judicious, I am bound to say, grieve that the thing was done, but none of them consider that the error in judgment ever cost anybody anytiicg. That' is the gossip I meet with everywhere I go. I cannot 'find out anything about the Audit Office, and the report that is to be subjected to a Royal Commission. Most people are fond of having a fling at the Audit, principally for its ways, which the many-bead eel regard as circumlocutionary and cumbrous ; but bo far as I can ascertain there is uot going to be "any Oomruißsion, or anything of tho iind."