MISS RHODES’ RICHES.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume IV, Issue 524, 9 May 1882, Page 2

MISS RHODES’ RICHES.

The London correspondent of the New Zealand Times contributes the following :—The Judical Committee of the Privy Council has given judgment in the great will case, Rhodes v. Bhodes and others, in favor of the appellant, Miss Mary Anne Rhodes, at present in Florence, and who is now entitled to the full enjoyment of the residuary estate, whose estimated value the Judge stated to be L 272,796. It is understood that this constitutes the g.eat bulk of the pro

perty of the late W. B. Rhodes ; but, strange to say, writers in the London Press persist in saying that he died worth from “ three to four millions sterling,” and the “ residue ” is set down at between L 300,000 and L 400,000. The appeal was allowed, with costs to come out of the estate in the colony. This is a remarkable incident—a strange story—in the early history of New Zealand. One of its oldest colonists had a natural daughter, a half-caste, to whom in 1878 he left a large estate. A dispute arises as to the meaning of a certain portion of the will. The Supreme Court in Now Zealand is applied to, and decides in favor of the widow. In consequence of this,! the young lady Miss Rhodes, the daughter of an aboriginal mother—appeals to the Law Court of Old England, and justice is done her After this, Macaulay’s New Zealander is sure to come to visit London; but if she finds St. Paul’s Cathedral and London Bridge in ruins, it will not be to seek redress in the Appeal Courts, for then they will be nonexistent. To make this colonial romance complete, it only wants the accomplished young lady in question to marry an English lord or a Scotch baronet, with a long pedigree and a short rent-roll