derstood
in New Zealand. From 1869 to 1872 its leaders were Fox, Vogel, and
McLean. Fox left it in 1872; Major Atkinson joined it in 1874; Vogel
quitted it in 1876; McLean died in 1877. Put out of office by Sir
George Grey, it was for a short time led once more by Sir William Fox.
It came back again in 1879 as a Hall-Atkinson-Whitaker combination.
Hall retired in 1881, but Atkinson and Whitaker, helped by his advice,
continued to direct it to the end.

Now for its opponents. Rallying under Sir George Grey in 1876, the
beaten Provincialists formed a party of progress, taking the good old
name of Liberal. Though Sir George had failed to save their
Provinces, his eloquent exhortations rapidly revived in the House of
Representatives the democratic tendencies of some of the Councils.
Hitherto any concessions to Radicalism or Collectivism made by the
House had been viewed in the most easy-going fashion. Vogel in his
earlier years had adopted the ballot, and had set up a State Life
Insurance Department, which has been successfully managed, and has now
about ten millions assured in it. More interesting and valuable still
was his establishment of the office of Public Trustee. So well has the
experiment worked, that it may be said as a plain truth that in New
Zealand, the best possible Trustee, the one least subject to accidents
of fortune, and most exempt from the errors which beset man's honesty
and judgment, has been found by experience to be the State. The Public
Trust Office of the Colony worked at first in a humble way, chiefly in
taking charge of small intestate estates. Experience, however, showed
its advantages so clearly, that it has now property approaching two
millions' worth in its care. Any owner of property, whether he be
resident in the Colony or not, wishing to create a trust, may use the
Public Trustee, subject, of course, to that officer's consent. Any one
who desires so to do may appoint him the executor of his will. Any one
about to leave, or who has left the Colony, may make him his attorney.
The Public Trustee may step in and take charge, not only of intestate
estates, but of an inheritance where no executor has been named under
the will, or where those named will not act. He manages and protects
the property of lunatics. Where private trust estates become the cause
of disputes and quarrels, between trustees and beneficiaries, the
parties thereto may relieve themselves by handing over their burden to
the p