CLAIMS TO LARGE FORTUNES

Northland Age, Volume 2, Issue 16, 23 April 1930, Page 3

CLAIMS TO LARGE FORTUNES

SOME ROMANTIC STORIES

A New Zealand draper has been left a fortune of £60,000. His great uncle amassed a huge fortune in America and thoughtfully died without leaving issue. It is always pleasant to read in the news about these unexpected legacies. If one person is lucky, why not another ? It gives to life an added zest and confirms the possibility of such an event. It is only necessary to take stock of unexpected fortunes to find that they are occurring all round us. At this very moment a Wellington business man is hard on the tracks of a fortune of £20,000,000. This sum has been accumulating in Chancery for goodness knows How long. Further afield, a peasant family living near Cologne continues to show the utmost optimism and tenacity for a whole century regarding a fortune they were expecting.

One hundred and fifty years ago a young man named Becker emigrated to America, Once again we have the old old story. He died childess and left a substantial sum in trust for any descendants who might be living in his home village after the lapse of a century. Despite poverty, optimistic descendants clung patiently to this village in the hope oi sharing in the accumulated interest and capital. Only two months ago their tenacity of purpose was rewarded. Becker’s fortune, amounting to just under one million dollars, has been distributed amongst them, But things aie not always so simple. For instance, with his last breath Maximilian Hershel tried to whisper to his adopted daughter the secret of where he bad left his money. Death cut him short, and it was known hat this fortune exceeded £2000,000. The adopted daughter spent years and every penny she possessed in a vain search for the money and subsequently died a pauper.

Possibly one of the biggest fortunes ever claimed was the sedne of expensive legal battles in 1910. Three hundred years ago General Wirtz made his fortune in the Dutch East Indies. On his death he bequeathed half his fortune to Amsterdam City and the other half to his natural heirs. The sum, at compound interest, had swollen to £36,000,000. In 1900 one of the heirs discovered what was waiting for him if he troubled to claim it. Gradually the news spread, and the list of claimants grew larger and larger. It is just as well not to talk too much about these sort of things, otherwise the list has a habit of growing, with, of course, roost expensive legal results. It is not exaggerating to say that at the present mo' Mtfit there are hundreds of fortunes waiting for someone who can but find the necessary evidence to claim them. Under the British Finance Act of 1921, which modified the provisions of the National Debt Act of 1870, stock on which dividends remain unclaimed for five years is applied to the reduction of the National Debt. In theory, money thus transferred is lost to the proprietor or heirs. In practice, restitution is made if ownership is proved even after the ex piration of this time limit. Payments of amounts over £2O is delayed for at least three months, during which period advertisements giving details of the stock must be inserted in newspapers,