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in their lifetime. It also includes estates previously administered by private trustees and taken over by the Public Trustee at the request of the interested parties. 9. Intestate Estates— During the year 598 estates of this class, valued at £368,192, were accepted for administration. This class represents a relatively small proportion of the new business each year, as most people having substantial assets take the precaution of making a will, thus ensuring that their estates will be distributed as they may desire instead of in accordance with statute. 10. Agencies.—The Office in appropriate cases acts as agent for persons who, owing to ill health, advancing years, absence from New Zealand, or other cause, desire to entrust the conduct of their affairs to the Public Trustee. When acting as agent for a member of the naval, military, or air forces the Office makes a special reduction of its charges, and a concession is also made in connection with the crediting of interest on funds held for the principal. 11. Estates of Persons under Disability.—Under the Mental Defectives Act, 1911, there devolves upon the Public Trustee the duty of safeguarding the assets of persons other than Natives who are patients within the meaning of the Act, provided no committee under the Mental Defectives Act, or administrator of the estate under Part 111 of the Prisons Act, 1908, is in office. In all but a comparatively few cases the estate of the patient is administered by the Public Trustee. Where, however, a committee is in office the Public Trustee is required to examine the accounts and administration of that committee. The number of such estates that came under the administration of the Public Trustee in the year was 486, with assets valued at £484,927. The total number of such estates under administration as at the 31st March, 1940, was 2,473, with assets valued at £2,827,627. Another capacity in which the Public Trustee may act for a person incapable of controlling his own affairs is as manager of the estate of a protected person under the Aged and Infirm Persons Protection Act, 1912. A manager can be appointed only by the Supreme Court, and the Public Trustee has been appointed in a number of cases. Where the affairs of the person concerned are entrusted to private management the Public Trustee still has the duty of examining the manager's accounts and of filing a report upon them in the Supreme Court. The Act provides a useful means of protecting the property of persons who for various reasons are unable to control it themselves but whose mental condition does not render it necessary that they should be committed to a mental hospital. The Public Trustee is the administrator of the estates of all convicts other than Natives. The cases where assets require to be administered on behalf of convicts are, however, few in number. 12. Workers' Compensation. —The Public Trustee is, unless the Court of Arbitration orders otherwise, the statutory custodian of all compensation moneys paid in respect of the death of a worker, pending the final distribution of them in accordance with the directions of the Court. In the aggregate the work performed by the Public Trustee in connection with these funds is considerable. Very often, however, the dependants possess no means apart from the compensation moneys, and for this reason the work involved in administering the funds has always been done at a minimum cost to them. ENEMY PROPERTY EMERGENCY REGULATIONS 1939. 13. Under the Enemy Property Emergency Regulations 1939 the Public Trustee is appointed Custodian of Enemy Property, and he may also be appointed the controller of the business of any person, firm, or company declared to be an enemy trader by the Minister of Industries and Commerce under the provisions of the Enemy Trading Emergency Regulations 1939. The object of the regulations is to ensure that no property reaches the enemy or becomes available in the form of foreign exchange to assist the enemy in his war effort. The importance of the economic aspect of the war has been stressed on

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