FREAK WILLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20384, 12 October 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

FREAK WILLS.

MONKEY'S £72 A YEAR.

The clause in Colonel Claude Lowtlier's •will in England that £4 a month should bo paid to-a friend for'the care of-his dog recalls other curious will provisos. "I have known as much as £IOOO a year left for a [pet—in this case an old racehorse," said, a member of a London firm of solicitors recently.' Elderly women have a. weakness for providing liberallv for cats, parrots, and canaries, while men usually leave an annuity for dogs and horses. We had a recent case of a wealthy man leaving £6 a month for the maintenance of his monkey." Once a man left his wife the sum of ono farthing to be sent to her by post in an unstamped envelope. The wife liarl to pay twopence for excess postage and a registration fee of eightpenee because the letter contained coin arid was not registered. A strange will which led to seven hundred people claiming on it was that of a Mr. Sharpies. He 1 stipulated that his £IIO,OOO should be devoted to; pensions for men and women, in the decline of life who bore his surname. Perhaps the most eloquent will was that of a man who dirpcted that his wife be paid five shillings to buy a rope to hang herself with and five pounds to his son, his fare " to go to the devil, if he has not already not reached that destination." ".Freak wills may be severely curtailed," said another London solicitor, " for a Bill has been reintroduced into the House of Lords by Lord Astor. " Its object is to secure that the family and dependents of a testa,tor or testatrix shall unless this is otherwise effected, be proEerly provided for out of available.assets y 'the will, but] withouttakinga.way powers of disposition."