WINDFALL FOR SOLDIERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18631, 12 February 1924, Page 10

WINDFALL FOR SOLDIERS.

GRAZIER'S £120,000 BEQUEST. PRIVY COUNCIL DECISION. [from our own* correspondent.] SIDNEY, Feb. 5. The returned soldiers of New South Wales have had a great windfall! £120,000 having come to them, like manna from heaven, as the resuli. of the decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. A grazier, named Verge, of New South Wales who died in 1921 left a will bequeathing his residuary estate to the repatriation I'und or some similar fund, for the benefit of the returned soldiers of the Stette. A member of the Verge family lodged an appeal, the question being raised as to whether the bequest was a good charitable gift. The Privy Council has now decided that it was.

The returned soldiers, feeling a little anxious over tho matter once it got into the law courts, had been disposed to accept a .compromise on the basis ot £90,000, but the Commonwealth Government law authorities, who had entered a cross appeal, refused to sanction this arrangement. The upshot is that the "diggers" are to get not only what they were willing to take but an extra £30,000. 1 The Privy Council has ruled that the money is to be applied for the benefit of New South Wales soldiers, and not for Australian soldiers generally. A trust is to be appointed for the .formulation of a scheme for the distribution of the -money.