SUED BY SON

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 296, 27 September 1935, Page 5

SUED BY SON

THE DONOR OF CLOCK TOWERS. CLAIM FOR MAINTENANCE. SUIT BY DESTITUTE PERSON. (Per Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Robert E. Green, donor of clock towers to Sumner and New Brighton, appeared as defendant in a maintenance suit at the Alagistrate’s Court this morning, when ho was sued by his son, Frederick Ernest Green, of Sydney, a carpenter, who was described: as a destitute person. Counsel for the son alleged that Green, senior, had spent large sums of money to vent his spite on his family and to stop them from getting his money. Green, senior, was 83 or 84 years of age. He had made an offer to the Christchurch City Council to give the city a statue at a cost of between £IOOO and £2OOO. The council refused the offer, declaring that defendant should make proper provision for his family. Immediately after this anonymous offers of gift clock towers were made to Brighton and Sumner, and subsequent events proved that Green, senior, had made the offers. He received an annuity of £7 a week.

Cecil Green, a son, said his brother Frederick had been unemployed since 1930. Frederick, who could hardly see, had no prospects of work and was absolutely destitute.