PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3853, 9 July 1891, Page 2

PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE.

[from the otago witness.]

The Public Trust Office, its conduct of business, the Royal Commission of inquirj thereon, and the commissioners' report these things, taken altogether, make what may be called, in classical language, "a pretty how d'ye do." Evidently, by means of that report, somebody—it is not clear at present who—is going to be "damned to everlasting fame." I incline to think it will be the commissioners themselves. One little fact that has leaped to light since the report appeared—a fact not discoverable in that voluminous document itself—is what may be called an eyeopener. The modest honorarium of the three commissioners was— ,l it is alleged," says the Daily Times, guardedly —lOgs a day! What, each ? Yes, each, it you please ! 80 days. Injustice to the country and themselves, the commissioners couldn't make the investigation shorter by a single hour. Before this fact came out the length of the proceedings seemed unintelligible. What could there be in the affairs of a ; single public office to keep three commissioners of inquiry occupied for eighty dajs ? What could there be ? Why, lOgs a day apiece ! Do you need to ask any further ? Read the report in the light of this fact. Note the pertinacious and untiring zeal with which the commissioners hunt to the death every mluutest detail, their insatiable curiosity about trifles—down to the proper binding*)!' Governmentledgers—whether they should be with brass tips or canvas covers—their tendency to preach, the windy harangues by which they were accustomed to preface their questions, their reluctance to let a witness go, their habit of " recalling " him next day and asking him the same things over again—all this becomes intelligible. They were "on the job," and they were paid by the day—lOgs a day. Say it was only five, the principle remains the same, and the i idiosyncrasies of their unparralleled report are finally and adequately explained,