NEW VISCOUNT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 283, 11 September 1941, Page 3

NEW VISCOUNT.

POVERTY BAY SHEEPFARMER. (P.A.) ■ GISBORNE, September 10. The Hon. Hugh St. Leger, who has been sheepfarming at Hangaroa, 30 miles from Gisborne, since 1908, succeeds to the title of his brother, Viscount Doneraile, who has died m England. The new viscount took over a. small grazing run which had been acquired some years earlier by his elder brother, Ralph, who was killed in an accident in Ceylon. His property, of 5650 acres carries about 10,000 sheep, and the successful farming of the station has been Mi* St. Leger s chief interest. The tenure of the property was the subject of a Privy Council action which Mr St. Leger successfully brought against the Government some years ago, liis legal experience before coining to New Zealand standing him in good stead in these protracted proceedings. The seat of the Viscountcy of Doneraile is in Doneraile, County Cork, but the estates are of insignificant value. For some generations the title has passed in indirect line. The sixth Viscount succeeded an uncle to whom the title passed from a second cousin, who was the last Irishman to hold the title. Next in line of succession was Mr Ralph St. Leger, and on his death in 1907 the heir presumptive, became the younger brother Hugh, who now succeeds. In 1920 Mr Hugh St. Leger married Miss Morice, daughter of a neighbour-: ing settler, but they have no family, and the next heir to the title is so far removed from the.direct line that even the new Viscount does not know who it is.