ABSTRACT
Moffat suggests, with something of a metaphysical lilt, that ‘a private trust is…a gift projected on the plane of time’.1 What he means is that the trust constitutes a gift made by the settlor but it is not a gift which is perfected at one moment when possession of absolute title in that property passes to the beneficiary. Rather, an express trust operates over a period of time in transferring title from the settlor, via the stewardship of the trustee, to the beneficiaries of the arrangement. It should be pointed out that Moffat is not intending this remarkable expression to be a definition of the trust. Instead I am fixing on it precisely because it is such a powerful image; and therefore you should forgive me if what follows seems at first to be a little pedantic; but the image is so strong as to be deserving of close attention.
