BEQUEST TO AUCKLAND

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26887, 13 November 1952, Page 8

BEQUEST TO AUCKLAND

£350,000 Gift

Effective

LOGAN CAMPBELL ESTATE

(New Zealand Press Association} AUCKLAND, November 12. Forty years after the death of Sir John Logan Campbell, a former Mayor of Auckland, charitable and education institutions and public purposes are to benefit from his will. They will receive the income from the residue of his estate, which was today estimated to total between £350,000 and £400,000.

This final provision of Sir John Campbell’s will has become effective through the death in London this week of his only surviving daughter, Mrs Winifred Humphreys. Cabled advice of her death was received in Auckland today.

Sir John Logan Campbell, Mayor, businessman and benefactor of Auckland, died in June, 1912. He had amassed a considerable fortune as a merchant and as a partner in the brewery business of Campbell and Ehrenfried Company, Ltd., and his will made provision for Lady Campbell and their daughter during their lives. Lady Campbell died not long after her husband and the will provided that on the death of Mrs Humphreys, the Cornwall Park Trustees were to administer the estate and were to distribute the income in perpetuity from about £300,000. That sum today is about £350,000. The Cornwall Park Trustees were also to receive the capital of a trust created by Sir John Campbell before his death for the benefit of his daughter. That consisted of a block of buildings in Queen street and combined with the other sum, is expected to make the trust worth up to £400,000.

The income from this trust, although administered by the Cornwall Park Trustees, is not to be used for Cornwall Park.

Sir John Logan Campbell’s will, apart from the provision for Lady Campbell and Mrs Humphreys and certain private legacies, made specific charitable, educational and other bequests amounting to £71,000. They included £20,000 to endow a university chair of agriculture and £35.000 to the Cornwall Park Trustees as an additionaL endowment for the maintenance and improvement of the park, which he had given to the public in 1901. The residuary estate was left to the children, if any. of Mrs Humphreys. Income to be Distributed

In the event of her dying without issue, the whole of the proceeds of the residuary estate were to be handed over to the Cornwall Park Trustees, who were to hold them in trust and distribute the income annually for charitable, educational, and public purposes at their unfettered discretion.

Mrs Humphreys had no children. She received an annuity of £2OOO under the will and apart from that the income of the estate has accumulated. Mrs Humphreys, who was a widow, was aged about 89 when she died. She came to New Zealand in 1912 and again in 1913.

Known for much of his life in New Zealand as ‘‘the father of Auckland.” Sir John Campbell was the city’s greatest public benefactor. He gave thousands of pounds to numerous causes, but his most magnificent gift to the people of his adopted country was Cornwall Park, of 300 acres, which is a splendid memorial to his generosity. He made this gift in 1901 when he assumed Mayoral office for the visit to New Zealand of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary. His statue in the park was unveiled on Empire Day, 1906. by the Governor. Lord Plunket. i