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REPORT ON THE WORKING OF THE PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE FOR THE YEAR ENDED 3 Ist MARCH, 1933,

Public Trust Office, Wellington C. 1, 2nd November, 1933. Sir, — I have the honour to submit a report on the working of the Public Trust Office for the financial year ended 31st March, 1933. PROGRESS OF THE OFFICE. 1. In my previous report I referred to the unfavourable conditions which obtained throughout the year then under review and had a far-reaching effect on practically every phase of the work of the Office and to the resultant heavy demands upon the executive and the staff. It is a matter for regret that no substantial improvement of these conditions can be recorded in this report, but, on the other hand, the passing of the year has seen the difficulties intensified in a number of respects through the further decline in values and fall in the revenue from assets and investments, bringing increased difficulties both in the administration of estates and funds and in the control of investments. In these circumstances it is all the more satisfactory to be able to report that the Office has continued to make progress, that the high standard of service rendered in the past has been maintained, and that the facilities which it affords for the efficient and economical administration of trust estates and for the performance of kindred duties continue to be availed of extensively by the population of the Dominion. The latter is to be attributed to several important factors. 2. Over the long period of its operations—for sixty-one years have elapsed since the Public Trustee first embarked upon the administration of trust estates and other fiduciary duties—the Office has built up an imposing record of efficient, faithful, and withal economical service to those for whom it acts. The object aimed at by the establishment of the Public Trust Office was the provision of a means whereby testators and settlors desirous of making provision for their relatives and dependants or others whom they desired to benefit might ensure that effect would be given to their wishes with the fullest safeguards as to the security of their property and assurance as to the faithful carrying-out of their expressed wishes. It may be justly claimed that throughout the period of its existence the Public Trust Office has amply fulfilled this purpose, and the passing of the years has seen a continuous development and expansion of its business and an increasing resort to its services, constituting significant testimony to the satisfactory performance of the duties entrusted to it. 3. The first essentials of trusteeship are the preservation of the assets which form the capital of the trust estate and their control and management in such a way as to ensure that the best results as regards both capital and income are achieved for the persons beneficially interested. For the first of these it is evident that there can be no greater assurance for a person creating a trust than is furnished by recourse to the services of an organization of a public character established for the specific purpose of undertaking fiduciary duties and subject in the course of its operations to special safeguards imposed by the Legislature. From the constitution of the Public Trust Office testators and settlors and those designated by them as beneficiaries are provided with an unparallelled assurance that their property will be adequately protected until the time arrives for the distribution of the trust estate. 4. In the management of trust estate assets and their utilization to the best advantage the factor of experience and that of the wide knowledge which is derived from the control of a large volume of assets, in which practically the whole range of property rights is represented, play no small part, especially during periods of unfavourable economic conditions such as the present, which bring with them a special need for prudent and safe administration. In the Public Trust Office each

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