A CRUEL HOAX.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12401, 24 October 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

A CRUEL HOAX.

OLD MAN FROM AUSTRALIA AND A

BOGUS FORTUNE. Ax old man named J. M'Kenzie Goodwin, appeared at Southwark Police Court on September 7, and complained to Mr. Chapman, that he had been the victom of a cruel hoax. He saw the following advertisement in a Brisbane newspaper : —

Goodwin.— this should meet the eye of John M'Kenzie or Frederick Holland Goodwin, sons of F. C Goodwin, M.U., late of Manchester, Lancashire, England, who saileefper ship WaJiata from East India Docks, London, for Brisbane, Captain Murphy, 1861. Uncle Holland dead; money and property left (£90,000). Communicate, Harrison and Baxter, solicitors, High Holborn, London ; or Sir Humphrey de Traiford, Trafi'ord Park, Manchester, Lancashire, England. The applicant said that in consequence of this advertisement he came to England from Queensland. He communicated with Sir Humphrey de i'ratloid, who replied: " I received several letters with regard to the Goodwin matter, and I may say I knownothing about them nor the advertisement. 1 have passed all the letters I have had on the matter to my solicitor.' 1 Mr. Cecil Chapman: Have you been to Messrs. Harrison and Baxter': The applicant : There is no such firm. Mr. Cecil Chapman : It is a matter for the police. The applicant: Could you grant me a little assistance, as I am entirely without means?

Mi. Cecil Chapman eventually wrote him d letter to take to the Agent-General. The Traiford Park Estate, it may be mentioned, was sold to Mr. Ernest Terah Hoc-ley in 1896, and was by him converted into a company, known as the Trafford Park Estates Company. On calling at the office of the Agent- i General for Queensland, Mr. Goodwin was i informed that there was no fund available ; for carrying out the magistrate's suggestion j for a p'asasge back to Queensland. Being j informed of this on Tuesday Mr. Chapman j remarked that it was an extraordinary case. ; Pending inquiries as to the alleged death of : " Uncle Holland,'' the will, and the exist- ; ence of the firm named Harrison and Baxter, j he would allow the old gentleman os a day from the poor box. He expressed surprise that the writers of letters dated from HighHolbora, as late as August 17. and purporting to be sent by a firm of solicitors, could not be discovered. It appears that on or about the date named, when they arrived in London, the Goodwins received a letter signed "Harrison and Baxter," directing them to proceed to Manchester to receive bequests valued at £175,000. They were then staying at the Hotel Cecil, and they proceeded to Manchester, with the result that they found nothing and spent all the money that they had brought with them. Early in the afternoon a new development was "created by the arrival at the Court of a lady from the country, who proved to be the elder sister of the Goodwin brothers. She had seen the reports in the papers, and hurried to London to meet her relatives, whom she had not seen since they left England in 1861. Mr. J. M. Goodwin, the elder brother, had by this time come to the Court, and he at once recognised his sister. Her statements cleared the ground considerably. She said " Uncle Holland" was not their uncle in reality, but only by name in the family. He was a great friend of Dr. Goodwin's, and he was a Manchester solicitor named Holland Redhead, who died, she believed, before Dr. Goodwin, and' who left a small property, but nothing like £90.000. It was willed, "she believed, to illegitimate children, with a reversion to herself and her sister, which they had long since ceased to think of, and which might have been worth at the outside £300 to £400 a year. Miss Goodwin deplored the fact that she was personally unable to provide her brothers with funds, ami that uer sister was similarly situated. Both occupied situations, which they had tilled for upwards of 20 years, and they had believed themselves alone in the world until now.

Mi. J. M. Goodwin was again in attendance at Southwark Police Court s-ii Wednesday. His two sisters had also arrived, iu consequence of reports in the papers, and they wished to thank the magistrate for his kindness to their aged and infirm brother. Mr. Goodwin, drew his first instalment of subsistence-money from the poor-box, according to the magistrate's order, and proceeded to a neighbouring coffee-house in company with his long-lost sisters. They had been separated 42 years. Neither lady could throw any light on the origin of the hoax, but they agreed that " Uncle Holland" died in the early sixties. The elder sister added that she believed the death occurred at Dodworth, near Barnsley, Yorkshire, but that a Manchester solicitor, Mr. Potter, had charge of the will. Reports of the case published in the newspapers have led to a number of subscriptions ; being forwarded to the magistrate for the benefit of Mr. Goodwin. These included £5 from Messrs. Rothschild, and a similar sum from a gentleman iu the West End, who i desires to remain anonymous.