LAW OF INHERITANCE.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16290, 14 August 1918, Page 5

LAW OF INHERITANCE.

SOLDIERS SHOULD MAKE WILLS

The anomaly in tho law of inheritance, under which, a father may claim tue whole estate of an unmarried eon who dies intestate, is the subject of a letter just received by Mr C. J. Parr, M.P., irom Sir James Allen. The matter was brought under the "notice of the Acting-l'rime Minister by the Soldiers' Mothers' League (Auckland). Sir James Allen says he finds it is true that under the existing law n father may claim the whole estate of an intestate son, thus creating an injustice. The difficulty, however, did not seem to be one that could be met by any amendment of the law. No system of intestate succession could be devised which would not in special cases lead to injustice. The suggestion that in intestacy the estate should be equally divided between the father and mother was itself objectionable, for the cases to which attention 1 had been called wero cases in whicn the father, was rightly entitled to nothing, and thcie were doubtless, numerous other cases, in which tte mother was entitled to nothing. Ihe real and only method of avoiding these difficulties, lie was informed, was for soldiers to make their wills. Abundant facilities for doing so were afforded, both in New Zealand and in the United Kingdom,, soldiers -being exempted from all the former requirements of testamentary disposition. If, therefore, any father who had deserte his family and forfeited any moral claim to his son's estate was nevertheless enabled to obtain it under the law of intestacy, it was due to uho fault or neglect of the soldier himself.