MISSING DEBENTURES

Grey River Argus, 17 March 1945, Page 7

MISSING DEBENTURES

£50,000 WORTH TURN UP P.A. CHRISTCHURCH, March 16 The Christchurch Drainage Board debentures for £50,000 which are believed to have been at a bank at Bordeaux when that French city was occupied by the Germans in 1940, have been recovered, according to advice received by Mrs. R. A. Hollis, of Christchurch, who is a beneficiary of a trust holding the debentures. With the debentures have been recovered interest coupons which have not been cashed for the last five years, and are worth well over £lO,OOO. Mrs. Hollis is one of three beneficiaries, the others being her mother, Lady Cox, of Sydney, and. a cousin in Europe. The debentures were bought by her father, the late Sir Owen Cox, under an agreement that the interest should be paid in Sydney Two years ago the New Zealand Treasury asked the Drainage Board to cease sending the interest payments to Sydney, where they were accumulating while waiting" for the presentation of the interest coupons, but the Board considered that it was bound by its arrangement with Sir Owen Cox. There was then more than £B,OOO awaiting collection. The fact that the coupons had not been presented suggested either that the debentures had been destroyed, or that the Germans had failed to find them, as it was considered that it would be possible for them to be negotiated through neutral channels. Mrs. Hollis has no idea of where the debentures were recovered, nor of how they had been kept out ol the enemy hands. She has simply had advice, from the the trustees, that they are now in a position to resume negotiating the merest coupons, _ ana to make payments to the beneficiaries.