TOO LATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 188, 9 August 1924, Page 19

TOO LATE.

CABMAN'S £80,000.

RICH A FORTNIGHT. In less than a fortnight after the Press had announced that he had fallen heir to a fortune of £80,000. Mr. Wm. Browne, a Dublin cabman, died. The end came in. the Elphis private hospital, Lower Mount Street. Dublin. Vp to a few days before h<s "was to be seen at his old hazard in College Green, standing by his horse and cab, the centre of much attention and curiosity by reason of his newly-found wenltb. Of strong and sturdy frame, he was apparently the picture or' health, and though (*8 years of age, he seemed several years younger. About a week ago he was obliged to seek medical assistance, with the result that lie was at once ordered to hospital. An operation was performed immediately by Dr. Gordon. For some time the patient rallied, and seemed to be on the mood, but, despite his snnpulnc spirit, liis ailment proved fatal, auil the end came calmly in the earlj- hours of the morning. Mr. Browne came in for his huge fortune as a result of a wUI made by Mr?. Jane Isabella Lewis, formerly of Kilcullen, Co. Kildare, who left the proceeds of her real estates in Ireland to trustees to expend £80,000 in erecting in Dublin n hospital, to be called the Harvey Lewis Memorial Hospital, in memory of her husband, who was a nigh Sheriff of Kildare, and member of the British House of Commons. Having died within three months nfter the date of the will, the bequest for the hospital failed, and the real estate Iα Ireland, believed to exceed £100,000, became the property of the heir-at-law, while £18,000 from other sources is available for a wing to an existing hospital in Dublin under the will.

The testament was the snbject" of proceedings before the Master of the Rolls about a fortnight ago, when an order was made to pay out or the rents of the renl estates in the hands of the trustees the sum of £230 to keep Mr. Browne going till the estate had been wound up, in the course of a few weeks.

Mrs. Lewis was a housekeeper In the service of llr. Harvey Lewis before her marriage with him. Mr. Browne has been 32 years a cabman plying for hire on the Dublin streets. nis surviving relntives include a daughter, Mrs. Cosgrove, and 2 grandson.