8.—9

26

In order to secure rapidity of identification, each class of entry is made on a slip of a distinctive colour. The slips are mounted in frames, each containing forty slips, which can all be seen at a glance. The system has proved most effective for the purpose of identifying inward correspondence. Six separate sets of card records have been displaced by the system. Some idea of the range of the system can be gathered from the fact that, when the slips are complete, the entries will exceed 35,000 in number. DISTRICT OFFICES—REVIEWS BY PRINCIPAL OFFICERS. AUCKLAND. The district controlled by the Auckland Branch has a wide geographical area, extending, as it does, from the North Cape to Taupo, and embracing the country between, from coast to coast. Twenty-five years ago the whole business of this Branch was conducted by one senior officer assisted by a cadet. At the close of the financial year ending the 31st March, 1919, the local staff numbered fifty-five, and further increases are becoming necessary to cope with the volume of business. As indicating its development, it may not be without interest to mention that on the Ist April, 1918, there were 1,256 estates under administration, of an aggregate value of £373,962. During the year 826 new estates came in, and sixty-six others were delegated by the Head Office for local administration in accordance with the scheme of decentralization which the present administration has inaugurated. During the financial year ending the 31st March, 1919, the aggregate gross value of estates under local administration was £1,111,636. For the same period the total receipts at this Branch from all sources amounted to £475,032. In 1894 the whole of the correspondence was dealt with, written, and press-copied by one officer and a cadet. There are now eleven typistes employed, and the inward and outward correspondence for the, past financial year totalled 54,615 and 72,112 letters respectively. A striking illustration of the increase in the financial operations of the Office is afforded by the fact that at the 31st March, 1918, the total amount of investments upon mortgage in this district was £2,297,486, while at the 31st March, 1919, the total was £2,577,230. Perhaps the best evidence of the growing appreciation of the public is afforded by the number of wills deposited appointing the Public Trustee executor. During the year ending the 31st March, 1918, 216 new wills were deposited in the Office, while in the following year the number amounted to 346 —an increase of 130 over the previous year. In order to meet the requirements of the business it has recently been found necessary to establish new Agencies at Waihi, Thames, Te Aroha, Taumarunui, Te Kuiti, Kohukohu, and Whakatane, in addition to others already existing. In this connection an important change is under consideration whereby a District Manager will be appointed at Hamilton with certain delegated powers of local administration. This is a feature of a general scheme of decentralization now being gradually brought into operation by the Public Trustee and which has never before been seriously attempted. The effect of this, when fully developed and carried into operation, must be to relieve congestion at Head Office and expedite the general work of administration, besides opening up avenues of promotion for the more highly qualified officers of the Department. That it will also give general satisfaction to those having business with the Office is unquestionable, as affording beneficiaries and others a ready means of ascertaining at any time the position of their accounts without incurring the otherwise unavoidable delay of a reference to the Head Office.