MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 31, 5 February 1910, Page 8

MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.

ANOTHER TICHBOP.NE CASE. LEGATEE DECLARED DEAD. (By Tplegraph.-— Press Association.^ WELLINGTON, Friday. A case which Messrs. Stafford (for the Public Trustee; and the children and next of kin of Richard Tuckwell (deceased) brought before Mr. Justice Cooper, sitting in banco, to-day, presented such remarkable features" that his Honor was moved to remark: "This appears to mc tn be another Tichborne case. It certainly contain.* excellent maferial lor a novel." The t . ase was re _ ierred to, but briefly, in August last, when Mr. Justice Cooper had before him a petition for direction lodged by the Public Trustee re the will of George Tuckwell. it appeared that Tuckwell went to Australia in ISSO, and had not been heard of since ISS3. The judge on that occasion ordered that advertisements be inserted in the chief papers circulating in the principal cities of Australia, in order that the Public Trustee might be separately represented in the Court when the matter was argued. The advertisements had been published as directed by his Honor, and to-day he declared that George Tuckwell was dead, and that he died intesr-ate, that he was never married, and that consequently there was no issue.

The facts of the case, as set out in the affidavits and other documents, and from his Honor's remarks, are certainly curious. RieKard Tuck well was a farmer et Karori in the early days, and made a fair competency. When he made his ■will at provided for his wife, who predeceased him, ard for his children. AfI'qt this, the balance of his estate was to lie distributed among the children on the coming of ane of the youngest of them. George Tuckwell, the eldest sdot, went away to Australia, and while lie was away his father died, in ISB2. He came over to Wellington afterwards to learn of his interest in the will, and it was in 1882 that he was last seen in Wellington. He was then unmarried. After his departure for Australia a second time Tuckwell corresponded with his relatives here with some regularity, and lentere were received from him up to ISS3. Then they suddenly ceased, and from 1553 up to now no letters had been received from him by his relatives in New Zealand or elsewhere. He had brothers in Australia, and the last relative who saw George Tuckwell alive was his brother Archer, and that was in Sydney. Inquiries made subsequently showed that. George had shared lodgings with another man in Sydney, and at his lodgings in 1357 there was a box of his containing papers. Advertisements were published in Australia and New Zealand fur George Tuckwell between ISD2 and 1898, but with no result. _i-\ UNEXPECTED LETTER. However, in 1593, a letter was written to a brother of George Tuckwell in Wellington, purporting to be from the missing man. and asking for photographs ofc the family. The brother who received this letter was satisfied it was a forgery. Then a. letter came to siv that a. former friend of the Tuckwell family was coming to Wellington, with a power of attorney from George Tuckwell, to collect the moneys due to him. The sum involved is about i'tiOO. The money was claimed from the Public Trustee, and the power of attorney was addressed to him. It was said that George Tuckwell was then st Cubar, New South Wales. The friend in question said he was coming to Wellington. He admitted that the writing of the lerer was his, but that it was at George Tuckwell's dictation. Evidence was clear, said his Honor, that the friend had been in Cobar under an assumed name, and that he received a telegram from. Wellington in reply to inquiries made in connection with George Tuckwell. The friend wrote to his mother in Wellington, and some of the letters were obtained by the police. They contained inquiries as to the money left to George Tuckwell. Tho friend's family refused any information of his whereabouts to the police, and efforts to find him had been fruitless. Xo claim had been made •on the Public Trustee from anyone on behalf of George Tuckwell. The indications were, his Honor said, that the friend obtained possession of papers from George Tuckwell, and from them obtained information of the death of TuckTvell, but there was no indication of the registration of his death, and it was quite possible that' he died under an assumed name. QUESTION OF IDENTITY. In 1005 the matter came before his Honor, who made an order for the Public Trustee to hold the funds until he had made further inquiries. This was done, but with no result. It had been mentioned that a, George Tuckv.-ell had married at Xarrandera, Xew .South Wales, in 1597, and that his wife instituted , proceedings for divorce, but her husband's identity with the George Tuckwell in question was not established. In 1593 a conveyance was taken by a well-known [Wellington solicitor of land at Kaiwarra, ■which George Tuckwell had been left by ihis father. This land was paid for, and the proceeds sent to the supposed George ' Tuckwell. A fraud, his Honor said, was successfully committed in 1893 by someone impersonating George Tuckwell, and this person attempted to ciaim the inonevs lield for George Tuckwell by the Public Xrustee. His Honor presumed George Tuckwell to be dead, unmarried, intestate, and that he died prior to the coming of age of .Valentine Tuckwell (the youngest child), and he thought it would be wise for the Public Trustee to hold the fund for further period of six months, and, providing no applications are received at the end of that time, to receive an order for the payment of the money over to the persons entitled to receive it.