A BARRISTER'S WILL

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 292, 10 December 1929, Page 5

A BARRISTER'S WILL

INTERPRETATION PROBLEM. BEQUESTS TO THE CHURCH. DIOCESE AND PAROCHIAL CLAIMS. The interpretation of clauses in the will of the late Hon. James Palmer Campbell, M.L.C., barrister and soUcitor, of Auckland, occupied the attention of Mr. Justice Smith and four counsel in the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon. The two clauses in question were one in which a bequest of £1000 was made "to the general sustentation 01 the Anglican Church of New Zealand," and of £500 "to the home mission and the church of the Province of New Zealand, Anglican." Mr. West appeared for the Standing Committee of the Auckland Diocesan Svnod, Mr. Haigh for the trustees ot the estate, Mr. A. H. Johnstone for Archbishop Averill, on behalf of the Church of the Province of New Zealand, and Mr. Cocker for the trust board of St. Marks parish, Auckland. Mr. West said the difficulty was caused by the fact that no fund called the general sustentation fund of the Anglican Church of New Zealand-was known to the General Synod, nor did it know any fund called the home mission fund of the Church of the Province of New Zealand. Testator was evidently using words of conversational import. Replying to his Honor, counsel said Mr. Campbell was a member of the Presbyterian Church up to 1912. The Presbyterian Church had only one such general fund. Mr. West submitted that the home mission referred to was the home mission fund of the diocese of Auckland, now incorporated in the central fund for church extension and home mission work. Mr. Johnstone said there were at least four interpretations of the clauses. The gifts might be to a fund administered by the General Synod, to the general sustentation funds of all the dioceses of New Zealand, to the Auckland diocese alone, or to St. Mark's Church, of which tsetator had been a member. He submitted that it would be a proper interpretation to give the funds to the Auckland diocese. Mr. Cocker contended that the parish fund of St. Mark's Church had an equally strong claim. When the will was made the sustentation fund of the Auckland diocese had ceased to exist. His Honor reserved his decision.