ROMANCE OF A WILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16376, 2 November 1916, Page 6

ROMANCE OF A WILL.

LOST DOCUMENT FOUND.

DECEASED SOLDIER'S ESTATE.

STRANGE STORY REVEALED.

A stoey possessing some highly romantic features, and which reveals quite a unique position, has just been brought to light by the discovery of the will of a deceased soldier after many months of careful search. The case, which has occupied the attention of His Honor Mr. Justice Hoskintr recently, is of particular interest, in view of the fact that only on Tuesday last His Honor granted letters of administration in the estate on the evidence that the will had actually existed, which was contained in a letter the deceased soldier wrote to his father just immediately prior to his departure from New Zealand for the front. In the letter he intimated the manner of disposition of his bequests. The deceased soldier in question, Charles Cyril Milling, was the son of a clergyman in England, and five years ago he came to New Zealand. He settled at Te Kuiti and took up the occupation of a farmer. On the outbreak of the war he enlisted, and became a trooper in the 4th, Waikato, Mounted Rifles, leaving his farm to the care and attention of a neighbour, Mr. Albert Goldfinch. He became attached to the main body of the Expeditionary Force, and went into camp at Alexandra Park, Auckland. He served in the campaign on Gallipoli Peninsula, and there met his death. Prior to his enlistment he made a will providing for the repayment of a sum of £1800 borrowed from his father, and giving the residue of Lis estate to a ladv to whom he was then engaged to be married. Shortly before he left the Dominion, however, the engagement was broken off by mutual consent. In August or early in September, 1914, he telegraphed to his solicitors, Messrs. Broadfoot and Finlay, of Te Kuiti, that, as he was passim J ugh h y train from Auckland to Wellington, he desired to be met at the train with the will then in their possession. He was met as requested by the firm s managing clerk, and in the latter's presence the will was destroyed on the railway station platform. He gave as his reason that he was on his way to Wellington to break off the engagement, considering that it was not fair to the lady nor to himself to be tied down, seeing that he had undertaken the hazardous occupation of a soldier on active service A day or so before he left for the front he wrote it r£ £ /* "i En S land > informing him that he had made a new will, and intimating the nature of the various bequests, which were quite different to those conv"'u i? V'l wiU he destroyed, and in the lady to whom he had been engaged was the chief beneficiary. The Court Proceedings. When the news of his death was received, it was discovered that the new will could not be fend, though search £E™.r" f ° r ll in - man y garters, and information concerning it was sought by advert cement and otherwise. Then the deceased soldier's solicitors applied to the Court for letters of administration in the estate asking for the letter the deceased wrote to his father to be treated as the will or, , n the alternative, for letters of administration on Ihe ground that the letter was admissible as evidence of the contents of the will. In giving judgment on Tuesday, His SntL hd3^ tha , t probate cou,d not be granted on the letter itself, as there was no previous evidence that it was written thaf £ 9tß | t0 r y ,Dt t - .He held > however, that the letter could be used as evidence of the existence and contents of the new will, alleged by the deceased soldier to r d V b - y £ m before " left bate nt V . ?'•• Honor *™ nted Probate. He stated in the course of his udgment that he war satisfied that the letter contained the essentia] parts of the Discovered by Chance. The peculiar feature connected with the case » that within a few hours of the judgment having been delivered b° His Honor, news was received that ♦>,» im-wing that it ° n K- The faCtS riedlv Tft, f V t been Wntten ver v hurried the" t the last moment before the debased s departure with the main body snores , and the manner in which it evenftiH ,tS Way Nt ° the hands of wastndeTby MilLf g l e ?« cial The'TatW SuTSS the lost will, they "produced fITSf ceased ro ldier wrote to his fath« Jt

No Legal Difficult^. J£ anf , |fga ] f d t i tfer n The oeS «* of the procedure that wHI £% to £ adopted is very simnle Tfc. I J? solicitors wn^iC. P dLly^ m *f|rSi Supreme Court for a revocation „» X. probate granted on TuesdaTkst In, *? application to His Honor to ™T„* T^ 8 on the .newly-discoverod wtll*™' PT °^ te h,d H ft CS oTeSon °^ mi dier who had died on active service It .1,-11 *, deemed t hTa active service shall be deemed to be a valid will and Si- ThVr 1 , heen mad ° » ™ fc by qnired. This has been made legal bv legislation passed during the orient year and which J" retrospective 1 it, opera! tion. If it had been a civilian whose will wa* missing and who had written abetter indicating the contents of his will it would be held that he had died intestate., the letter not being sufficient proof of his (testator s) intent.