LEGATEES LOSE BENEFITS

Hawera Star, Volume L, 26 August 1930, Page 6

LEGATEES LOSE BENEFITS

debarred from will.

NATIVE COURT DECISION. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Aug. 25. When Eruer Hetaraka, 'better known as Imare Hetaraka, died last year he left substantial benefits to Rilii* Kakuei e and l era Pom are Herewa and appointed the former as his trustee. Judge McCormick, in the Native Land Court, lias announced that reluctantly he had decided that neither could receive any interest in deceased’s land. He .said Uera was a child and suggested that she was a child or deceased. Slia was referred to in the will as one whom “Rihi and I brought up from birth.” She was apparently a- European. Legally, the judge said, she- therefore could not receive any interest in native land. As for Rilii. the judge, after exani in ting the evidence,' said she had not proved that she was an eligible object of the testator’s bounty. This decision, he admitted, largely defeated the testator’s object. He granted probate of the estate to Rihi. but excluded both Rilii and Uera from interest in it.