SOME ANIMATED CORRESPON DENCE. In the Public Trust Office report ap pears a letter from the Controller and Auditor-General, Mr J. E. Fitz Gerald, who regrets that owing to the unsatisfactory manner in which the Public Trust Office accounts are kept he is unable to certify to the accuracy of the balance-sheet with out taking exception to errors it still con tains, “ notwithstanding the correction of tho numerous mistakes in the accounts to which attention has been called by the- Audit Office in the course of the past year. Out of 347 audit queries on the past year’s accounts, a considerable number of which affected tlie figures in the balance-sheet, in 320 instances the errors have been ad mitted an! corrected. Of the remaining 27, 11 are still unanswered. Of the errors in the balance-sheet pointed out in my re port last year, the whole have been adjusted in the accounts of the present year. It cannot, therefore, be said that the objections raised by the Audit Office have been idle or unnecessary. Nor can the above figures fail to indicate the unsatisfactory manner in which the accounts of the Public Trust Office are kept. In the accounts of any other Go vernment office, including the Treasury and the Government Insurance Office, which are subjected to a similar vigilant scrutiny, mistakes and errors such as those hero pointed out are unknown, nor would they be found in the balance-sheet of any of the principal local bodies in the Colony. Mr Fitz Gerald then details his objections to the balance-sheet under review. lie goes on to say that a new feature seems to be disclosed in the management of tho Public Trust Office which deserves the con sideration of the Government. The office, when formed, was to have no personal interest in the property entrusted to it, further than such charges as would cover the cost of management. However, an idea seems to be springing up, he says, that one, if not the prin cipal, object should be to make the institution a financial success, and to consider the interests of the office as a financial institution, instead of exclusively the interests of its clients. 