TRUST LANDS TRUST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 April 1938, Page 8

TRUST LANDS TRUST

FOUNDATION AND PROGRESS SKETCHED. ADDRESS BY MR W. B. YATES. The history, work and purpose of the Masterton Trust Lands Trust were interestingly, sketched by the secretary, Mr W. B. Yates, at today’s’ luncheon of the Masterton Rotary Club. Mr Yates dealt at some length with the early settlement of the Wairarapa and the steps leading up to the foundation of the Trust, which until 1884 was part of the Greytown Town Lands Trust. The clause allowing the Trust to spend moneys for purposes of general public utility was considered by Mr Yates to be the most important factor in the development of the Trust. Had it been functioning as a purely educational endowment it would undoubtedly have been taken over by the Government. Touching on the progress of the Trust, Mr Yates said that .in the late ’9o's the annual revenue was about £7OO. It reached its peak in 1929 when the revenue totalled £6OOO. During the depression the returns dropped away, but today they were back again to the £5500 mark. In about 5 or 6 years time all the Trust loans, with the exception of the Opera House restoration loan, would be paid off and the Trust would again have £2OOO or £3OOO a year to distribute for the benefit of general education and public utility in Masterton. At the conclusion of his address, Mr Yates was accorded a hearty vote of thanks on the motion of Rotarian H. A. R. Dunderdale.