GREAT ESTATE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21921, 3 October 1934, Page 10

GREAT ESTATE

LATE SIR J. BOBEETS VALUE ABOUT £435,000 A NUMBER OF' BEQUESTS GIFTS TO DUNEDIN CITY [BY TELEGRAPH—PBHBS ASSOCIATION] DUNEDIN, Tuesday The value of the estate of the late Sir John Roberts has been sworn at under £435,000, the duty on. which will probably amount to nearly £140,000. Sir John was a moist; generous donor in his lifetime to charities of every description. By his: will he has left a legacy of £IOOO to the Knox Church Ladies' Association. He has also left legacies and annuities to certain of his employees and dependants, and he has left to the Dunedin Art Gallery three pictures which were presented to him by the citizens of Dunedin at the time of the Dunedin and South Seas Exhibition of 1889-90. They are, " The Turkish Bazaar" (Robertson), "The Old Inn at luverlochie" (Smart), and "The Shepherd's Return" (Waterlow). The residue of his estate is to be divided in equal shares among his eight surviving children and the daughter of a son who died many years ago. The testator offered his beautiful residence at Littlebourne as a gift to the city corporation for use as a Vice-Regal residence or for such other public purpose as the City Council might determine, and the gift has been accepted. The testator some years ago purchased and made over to the Hospital Board in memory of his wife the buildings and grounds at Middlemarch 'constituting the Louisa Roberts Hospital. ONEHUNGA RESIDENT PIONEER TARANAKI FARMER VARIOUS PUBLIC BEQUESTS An estate valued for probate at £30,000 has been left by Mr. Oscar Symes, a well-known pioneer farmer of Taranaki, who died at Onehuraga on September 11. Mr. Symes, who farmed for 40 years in the Waverley district, had beeii living in retirement at Onehunga for the past 18 years. Three direct legacies of a public nature are provided for in the will, and there is also provision for the disposal of the residue benevolently after other interests have been satisfied. Sums of £2OO each have been left to the Pa tea district hospital, to the Eg-mont-Wanganui Hunt Club, for the purpose of erecting new kennels at Waverley, and to the vestry of St. Stephen's Church, Waverley. The lastnamed bequest is for the purpose of assisting to pay the debt on the vicarage, and if it should prove to lie more than sufficient for that purpose, the balance is to be applied to improving the church property. After a life interest has been satisfied and family bequests distributed the residue is to be divided equally between. the central fund of the Church of England, controlled by the standing committee of the diocese of Auckland, and the Institute for the Blind at Parnell.