TOT NECESSARILY DEAD.

Evening Star, Issue 12882, 3 August 1906, Page 8

TOT NECESSARILY DEAD.

MR JUSTICE COOPER CAREFUL.

Once when Mark Twain saw a newspaper paragraph to the effect that he was dead he sent a terse, but to his friends reassuring, telegram which said : " Report much exaggerated." At the Chambers sitting of tin Supreme Court this morning some .mattea came up which recalled the Mark Twaii circumstance. One item on the official lisl read: "In the matter of the Trustee Act, 1883, and in the matter of the- will oi Fanny Woredell, deceased.—Petition for directions by executor." It appeared that in the will aforesaid it was directed, inter alia, that the real estate of the testatrix should be held by ber husband and the petitioner (Mr John Wilkinson) so that the) husband might enjoy the benefits derivable from it "during his lifetime," and that at his death the real estate should be sold, and the net proceeds of it divided between, the children that should be living at the death of the husband. Also that if William George Tullock Worsdell (one of the children) should have predeceased his father, that son's children should not be entitled to the share which he (William George) would have been entitled to had he survived his father. Now, the husband of the testatrix is dead, and Mr Wilkinson seeks direction of the Court. With the object of showing that William George did predecease his ,"££'„ ?° affidavit by Mrs Stevens, sister °Lj " ham G* ol was put in. In this affidavit it was stated that the said William George had, about the year 1882, after various travels and a visit Home, left for Caracas, Venezuela. There he married a cousin of the deponent's brother-in-law, Mr 1 ullock, of Oamaru. This lady corresponded from Caracas with her relatives here for five or six years, after which they heard nothing of William George, his wife, or his children—he had children in due S! n r^T".v In « e lasfc letter ifc that William George was in ill-health, and had been sent to the hills by his employers to recruit. After that the strictest inquiries were made for years, but no further news was gleaned. Another sister applied to the postal authorities at Caracas for information, but she got no reply. Then the deponent saw in a newspaper the 'War Cry'-Mr Wilkinson said it was) that there was a rebellion in Caracas, and that men, women, and children were being shot down like dogs. On the strength of this, principally, it was urged that ilham George, his wife, and his children were dead, and that before the demise of the husband of the testatrix. His Honor was not convinced. He said that if William George had left New Zealand with tie intention of returning, and had not returned during all those years, the position would have been different. But, as a matter of fact, the gentleman in question had pone away for good (to out it colloquially), or had changed his domicile (vide the lepal phraseology). It was common lmowledgc ■that when colonial sons left home in this way and adopted a new land the old ties frequently weakened, so that they ceased to correspond with their parents. In England it was different, but in the colonies so it was. Wherefore the fact that there had been no letters received from William George for years was not evidence sufficient to convince the Court that he had died before his father, or was dead at all. Neither could the paragraph which the lady who made the affidavit aforesaid saw in the ' War Cry' bo deemed to be proof conclusive of death. If there had been such a bloody rebellion overseas, some recopnised daily print would in all human probability have made reference to it. And therefore, and for other obvious reasons, that matter could bo easily made clear bv further inquiry.

Mr Wilkinson reminded His Honor that after the sister wrote to the Caracas postal authorities she got no reply. " Perhaps there was another rebellion ou, T ' said the Judge, with a twinkle. -, Then the Registrar told how not very long ago the Court had granted letters of administrat:on to the brother of a man who had been unheard of for fifteen years or 60, and how he (the Registrar) had recently got a, letter from that eame hitherto unneard-ol man asking why and how, etc. Somebody pointed out subsequently that the writer of the letter aforesaid, though he might not be dead, was at least in mourning, for he wrote on black-edged paper. Meantime, however, His Honor had decided that the evidence before him was not sufficient to justify him in doing what was desired of him, and Mr Wilkinson was left to make further ascertainments concemLni? the fate of William George.