PUBLIC TRUSTEE (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

4.42 p.m.

Mr Barker: Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

The Bill makes certain consequential amendments arising out of the repeal of the Trustees Ordinance (Chapter 34) and the opportunity has also been taken to make a number of amendments considered desirable from the accounting point of view. It is proposed to delete the provisions requiring the Minister to arrange from time to time the fees chargeable by the Public Trustee so as to produce an annual amount sufficient to discharge the salaries and expenses of the office of the Public Trustee. The Public Trustee administers mostly small estates. The fees chargeable by the Public Trustee are already much higher than the fees chargeable in England and New Zealand by the Public Trustees there. As it is unlikely that the Public Trustee fees will be increased, it is proposed to delete the provisions contained in subsection (4) of section 18 of the Public Trustee Ordinance.

The Public Trustee Ordinance contains no provisions relating to the disposal of unclaimed funds in the hands of the Public Trustee. The Bill seeks to introduce provisions whereby unclaimed funds remaining in the hands of the Public Trustee at the conclusion of the administration of the estate of a person dying testate or intestate shall be credited to the Unclaimed Estates Account to be kept there for seven years, after which such funds, if they remain unclaimed, will be paid into the Consolidated Fund.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. -[Mr Barker].

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.

Mr Speaker: This may be a convenient time to suspend. So I suspend the sitting of the House now, and resume at 5.15 p.m.

Sitting accordingly suspended at 4.48 p.m. until 5.15 p.m. Sitting resumed at 5.15 p.m.