RISE TO FORTUNE

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 114, 11 November 1919, Page 8

RISE TO FORTUNE

CURIOUS STORY OF A WILL

RETALIATION FROM THE GRAVE.

(FROM ODR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

SYDNEY, sth November. A curious story is told in the' Sun concerning the late Mr. John William Rice, a New Zealander, who was very successful in business in Melbourne and who enlisted in 1917.

When he went into camp Rice made a will, under which various Church of England charities were to benefit. He was promoted corporal, but the. officer of his battalion took his corporal's stripes away, and while at sea Rice wrote a codicil to his will providing that his estate should go to the Church only on condition that this officer no longer held any position in the Church. To-day the officer is a curate,, and the will must come before the Court to secure a ruling upon the effects of the codicil. WITNESSED BY OFFICER. On 27th February Rice made a will which, after making provision for his widow, directed that the balance should be applied by his trustees to advertising the work of the Church of England Diocesan Mission to the streets and lanes of Melbourne, and similar missions in other capital cities, the Home Mission Fund, and educational organisations in connection with the Church. ' As a business, man, he apparently realised that it pays to advertise, and his idea was not to give directly to the charities, but to establish a fund for the purpose of making their needs and work widely known. This will,'when drawn up, W.OS-. witnessed by the officer who was to be referred to in the later codicil. According to the statement of Mr Farmer, of Farmer and Turner, lot many years solicitor to Rice, the merchant found the camp discipline irk- i some, and on one occasion was absent ! without leave. The officer took the usual action, and disrated Rice from the rank of corporal which he held. He could assign no other.reason for the sudden change of front on the part of Rice, nor could the officer concerned. Shortly afterwards Rice left for the front with reinforcements for the 14th Battalion on the transport Nestor. The codicil was written on a piece of flimsy paper aboard that vessel, and is dated ■•26th March, at sea, on active service." It directs that if the officer who witnessed the original will "be employed or holds orders in the Church of England," all his bequests to the Church become void, and the property is to be used by his widow "for the Empire's benefit."

•While abroad Rice served at the front and suffered from shell-shock. He re,turned to Australia and went/ ,to the Rand wick (Sydney) Hospital for treatment. While he was on leave from the institution he went to a;' fish shop at Circular-quay, and -while standing at the head of a flight of stairs became dizzy, and fell to the bottom of the flight. He did not recover consciousness, and died on Bth September at the hospital. A ROMANCE OP BUSINESS. There is something of the romance of modern business in the life story of Rice. Born on the West Coast of New Zealand, where his father was a Customs official, lie waß left an orphan at an early age, and he received his youthful training in the Burnham Industrial School, near Christckurch. When he left that institution he obtained employment at a draper's shop in the town, and subsequently saved enough money to go to Sydney. There he took up a position with Anthony Hordern's, giving it up to join relatives in a drapery business in', Melbourne.

After working for some years he made sufficient.money to go to England, and little was heard of him for some* time. EventuaJly he returned to Australia as agent for Deberiham, • Peabody, and Co.,' silk merchants. , A later visit to England led to hJs appointment as representative of J. and N. Phillips, cotton merchants, and he built up this trade to a remarkable extent. His offices were in Chelford House, Russell-street, a fine brick building, which he erected. Trouble arose when the agency for the cotton merchants was transferred, and Rice sought redress in the Courts, a settlement being arrived at by agreement. During the war Bice sold his fine villa, and was waiting for a termination of hostilities to go to England and secure fresh agencies. . Then he heard the call,, and enlisted.

Though his estate is valued for probate purposes at £26,040, his solicitors have stated that when the liabilities and other .matters have been settled up it will only show a surplus of between £10,000 and £12,000. "Pluck and grit were his characteristics, and he climbed wonderfully in .the business world," said a friend. Ho was 44 years of age at the time of his death, and the strain of his service had had a weakening effect upon hia constitution.