WOMAN'S BROKEN HEALTH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21698, 13 January 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

WOMAN'S BROKEN HEALTH

SEQUEL TO A TRUST THOUSANDS OF " SCROUNGERS " Mrs. Emily Cantrell, a retired schoolmistress, lies seriously ill in Birmingham as the result of trying to distribute a fortune left bv her dearest friend. Mrs. Elizabeth Sheffield, of Edgbaston, died in August and loft £62,000 to her two executors, Colonel William Thomas Cox and Mrs. Cantrell, " to apportion i?i their discretion among my many dear friends and their two solves." Since the publication of the will Mrs. Cantrell has received thousands of bogging letters, and the number of callers at her house has been so great that at times they have formed a queue. Mrs. Cantrell was so worried by these people that her health failed. The breaking point came a few weeks ago, whon she collapsed under tho strain. She lay in November, with a nurse in constant attendance, in tho house where Mrs. Elizabeth Sheffield died.

Colonel Cox clashed to Birmingham whou ho heard of Mrs. Cantrell's illness. " Those begging letters and the scrounging callers have undoubtedly been tho cause of Mrs. Cantrell's illness," he said. " L havo received more than a hundred letters a day from all kinds of people, all of whom havo one object in common —to get their hands on the money.

" The money was left for the specific purpose of being distributed among Mrs. Sheffield's friends. These do not number more than twenty, and were each mentioned by name to us beforo Mrs. Sheffield died."