PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8242, 21 September 1906, Page 3

PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE.

'xhe following is the Annual Report of. the Publiu Trustee whioh baa been presented'to Parliament:— I have tbo honour to submit for your information a record of the business done by tbe Publio Trust Office daring the last financial year. On comparing it with that of pre•Tioua years a largo increase of business <n all branches will be noted. On tbe Ist October last the rates 'of interest payable to beneficiaries were increased Irom 4 per rent, to -4%lver cent, on snms under £3,000, and from 3)£ per cent, to A per cent. on all sums in excess of £3,000. Notwithstanding this, and also the fact that very little money was advanced on mortgage during the second half of tbe financial year, owing tct most of the moneys held on account of the Advances to Settlers Offioe being paid over, the transactions of the year show a profit of £11,990. This result is very satisfactory, and unless the rate of interest on •money lent fells below that at prosent obtainable the pavment to beneficiaries at the increased lates sill be maintained. Yho land Assurance Fund decreased by £9,366 during the year. This fun 1, which a few years ago was •considered inexhaustible, will dis appear in about four years from now, and the Consolidated Fund will then have to be drawn upon to make good olaims upon it under suction 186 of 'The Land Transfer Act, 1885.* The. diminution of the fund hag boen caused by the large burden placed upon it by 'The Government Loans to Loiai Bodies Act Amendment Act, 1892.' The oaymsnts to the Sinking Fund un-ler that Act are annually increasing, while the additions to the fund by contributions by no means balance them. In my opinion the claims against Assurance 1 Fund on account of short- • age in area, defective titles, etc., are likely to increase in the future rather than diminish in 1900 the amouut of the fund was £72,252 6a Id; it is now £27,886 19s 6d only, fcl strongly urge that the Land* and Income Assessment Act be amended •so that the present heavy tax on Natives interested in the reserves under the administration of the office should be removed. The tax is assessed on tbe whole grant, so that, no matter [ ; bow small a Native's share of rent is, when the reserve is of greater vaule than £SOO he has to pay tax, the exemption that is made in the case of a sole owner not applying to him. It may be argued that no dis tinction is made between Natives and Europeans. Tbe answer is that lands of Europeans are not in the same position. The 'grievance should be remedied at once. It is an unfair tax, accidental in its application, and as long as it exists the Natives will have good grounds for coraplaints.