State’s operations have been a considerable reduction in the price of coal.
Mr. Seddon set up a State Fire Insurance Department, which goes hand-in-hand with the State Life Insurance Department established by Sir Julius Vogel in 1869. The department has entered into keen competition with private life insurance companies that do business in the colony, and it has been the means of greatly reducing the rates of premium. The department, in 1906, has been in operation for only a year, but it is firmly established, and, being carefully managed, is likely to become one of the most popular and flourishing departments in the Government’s charge.
The Public Trust Office was established as far back as 1872, nearly a decade before Mr. Seddon entered politics, but during his Premiership its field of operations was considerably enlarged. The office is designed mainly to afford, at low rates of commission, a secure and convenient resource for persons who reside in New Zealand or another country, and who desire to form a trust or appoint an agent or attorney in the colony, and who may be in doubt as to the choice of a representative. Another of its objects is to relieve those who may be appointed trustees of property in the colony, or who, after having accepted trusts, may be unwilling or unable to continue the administration. The Public Trustee may be appointed a trustee, an executor, an agent, an attorney, or an administrator of an estate, and he is entitled to act as administrator on his own initiation in cases where persons have died intestate. The good faith of the administration of the department is guaranteed by statute, and the colony is pledged to maintain the integrity of funds obtained from estates and invested by the office. The State, in fact, gives its guarantee against loss from investments in bad or insufficient securities, and against loss from delay in the investment, and it guarantees that the interest, the rate of which is fixed by the Government, shall be paid regularly and punctually, free from all charges by the office.
The Public Trustee of New Zealand never dies, never leaves the country, never becomes involved in private difficulties, and is never distrusted. He is probably the best trustee in the
