THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, MAY 20, 1893. THE PUBLIC TRUSTEE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2505, 20 May 1893, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, MAY 20, 1893. THE PUBLIC TRUSTEE.

A writer in the Christchurch Press complains in vehement language of the the Press Association for telegraphing, and of the papers for publishing, the transactions of the Public Trustee’s department. He thinks it degrading that a Government department should resort to this way of advertising, and warns people against putting their properties into the hands of a public officer who can know nothing of their wives and families. He also thinks that there is a danger of unscrupulous Governments misappropriating the trust funds of the department. No doubt these are the ravings of one of those harpies who are maddened to desperation because they can no longer prey on the widows and orphans of New Zealand. The Public Trustee’s department is undoubtedly one of the best institutions in this colony. There are in this country thousands of people who have no friends and relations to whose care they could entrust the proper administration of their estates in the event of death. In the old countries men are surrounded by brothers, cousins, uncles, and friends, to whom they can entrust the provisions they have made for those left behind them, but in this colony the great majority of the people are strangers to each other, and we regret to say that those worthy of confidence are not to be met with at every street corner. The most honored and the most trusted turn out in the end to be unworthy of the trust reposed in them. There is a want of stability and reliableness about private persons and institutions in this colony which is completely destructive of confidence, but there can be no doubt about the Public Trustee. The Government guarantee all his transactions, and thus so long as there is a Government in the colony widows and orphans may rely on getting their own. It is true that the department has been disgracefully mismanaged, but that was when it was, like our railways,independent of Parliamentary control. This has now been changed; the department is amenable to Ministerial supervision, and a capable and energetic officer has been placed in charge of it, with most satisfactory results. How anyone can therefore find fault with this institution is beyond cur understanding, yet no less a personage than the Hon. William Rolleston has attacked it, because the present Government proposed to insist on insurance companies placing in the hands of the Public Trustee a certain sum, as a security that they would be able to meet any demands made upon them. However, the institution is flourishing, despite all its enemies have to say about it, and we heartily wish it success. It is one of the most useful institutions in the country in many ways, and it must yield infinite consolation to those who have entrusted it with their estates to feel that at any rate there is no fear of those they may leave behind being swindled.