The business transacted by the Public Trust Office during the year ended 31st March exceeded all previous records, according to a recent announcement by the Prime Minister (the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Ward), giving details of the year's operations.

“At the beginning of the year (on 1st April, 1928),” said Sir Joseph, “the value of the estates under administration by the Public Trustee was £44,155,548, and on 31st March last, after allowing for the estates that had been closed during the year, it had increased to £48,334,790. In each of the two years preceding the one under review, the net increase in value had exceeded £3,000,000, but the present occasion was the first in the history of the office when a net increase of more than £4,000,000 had been recorded. This notable increase was accounted for by the great volume of new business reported during the year, estates representing a total value of £7,091,350 having been accepted for administration. This also was a record, representing the largest volume of new business that had ever been written on the books, and it afforded ample proof of a growing desire to take advantage of the facilities which the Public Trust Office was able to offer in the conduct of trustee business. The difference between the value of the new estates accepted for administration and the net increase in the total value of estates under administration represented the value of the estates that had been wound up and distributed. With the special facilities of the Public Trust Office for handling large numbers of estates it was possible for the Public Trustee, in those cases where the trusts under which estates were held and the beneficiaries desired it, to complete the administration and distribute the assets with great dispatch.

As an indication of the remarkable growth of the Public Trust Office, it was pointed out that the new business for the year was greater than the total value of all the estates under administration less than twenty years ago. In fifteen years the value of the business had been almost quadrupled. There had been a net increase of more than £10,000,000 in three years.”

Sir Joseph Ward stated that it was in every way probable that this increase would be exceeded in the near future, as the number of wills deposited in the office by living testators who had appointed the Public Trustee their executor had been constantly growing until the number held was over 63,000, representing assets of a present estimated value of £251,000,000.

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The Southern Alps

(By H. Collett.)

Ye Southern Alps, dreaming your everlasting dreams,

Cloaked in the silent majesty of glacial white:

Holding the storm-wrack to your bosoms thro' the night,

And garnering by morn the sun's Auroral beams.

Staring with an incessant stare across the miles,

Where seas of purple jade toss shimmering in the haze

Of swooning mists that fainting droop, mid violet rays

Born in the shadow'd valleys of your wooded aisles.

Seen in the turbulence of Nature's angered mood,

In majesty of awe, sublime and dominant,

You reach beyond the clutching clouds, significant

Of strength immutable and centuries withstood.

The red tongued lightning weaves a crown of orange gold

About your brows; the crashing thunders roar bayette

Of homage; white flood torrents vainly rave and fret,

In futile rage, seeking the secrets that you hold!

The tempest threshes, impotent, against your sides,

Where glaciers lure their creeping hate with wanton roar:

Ruthless as Death, the surging avalanches pour Their cataclysmic waves and devastating tides.

Then, when the storm is fled and Nature's mood is gay,

'Neath cloudless skies of blue you smile o'er leagues of green

Lush plains, watching the gray mists trace laceries between

The purple shadows and the sun-fleck'd gold of Day.

Morn's lips, of petall'd rose, press low to kiss the hoar

That crowns your stately summits in eternal snows,

With evanescent tints that shame the bright rainbow's

Prismatic glory, arching over sea and shore

The goal set by the American Railway Association in 1923 for a reduction of 35 per cent. in railway accidents by 1930 has already been reached and passed by most of the railroads. In some instances the reduction has been as much as 75 per cent. The elimination so far as practicable, of the human factor is the chief reason for the improvement.

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Our Magazine
What The Public Think

For several years I have used your Magazine extensively in school work, and I have derived considerable advantages from it. The Magazine is most adaptable for school correlation, for it deals with a multiplicity of subjects in a most skilful and interesting manner. The children like it very much; the boys especially like to pore over its pages. In this connection the “Royal Visit” number, February, 1927, is particularly worthy of mention. I have found it an invaluable aid in History, Literature, Science and Nature Study, as well as Geography. It is a splendid piece of work. —Mr. L. H. Joblin, Schoolmaster, Maungaroa Rd., via Raurimu.

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I have shown the New Zealand Railways Magazine to a number of business men and distinguished overseas visitors, and they were simply delighted with the publication. The high standard of the articles, the excellent illustrations—the whole “get up” of the Magazine—appealed to their literary and artistic sense and was highly praised by them. It must be no light task producing, each month, a magazine of such high quality matter, and the Editor and his staff are to be congratulated on the production of a journal like this, which aids so materially to advertise our Dominion.—Colonel Burton Mabin.

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Having from time to time received copies of your Magazine, I hope it may interest you to know how much I appreciate reading its contents. The illustrations are splendidly produced and the articles instructive of the way New Zealand has advanced since the introduction of Railways.—Wm. Heath, Ludlow Lodge, England.

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Taking into consideration the great importance of your Magazine for statistical purposes, we should feel much obliged if you could see your way to continue a regular dispatch of the journal, moreover, as it constitutes one of our main information sources regarding New Zealand.—Victor A. De Beaune, Institut International Du Commerce, Brussels, Belgium.

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