SON SUES FATHER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22226, 28 September 1935, Page 15

SON SUES FATHER

ALLEGATION OF SPITE GIFTS OF CLOCK TOWERS " DELIBERATELY SPENT MONEY " [by telegraph—OWN correspondent] CHRISTCHURCH, Friday That P. E. Green, the donor of clock towers to Sumner, and New Brighton, had deliberately deprived himself of money to vent spite on his family was an allegation made in the Magistrate's Court to-day, when Frederick Ernest Green, of Sydney, a son of R. E. Green, claimed maintenance on the ground that he was destitute. The allegation was made by Mr. W. F. Tracy, counsel for Cecil Aubrey Green, another son, who was the informant. R. E. Green was represented by Mr. D. W. Russell. Mr. Tracy described the case as one of the most extraordinary ever put before a Court. Defendant, a man of 83 or 84, had deliberately deprived himself of money to vent his spite on his family. The chief complainant, Frederick Green, was a son of R. E. Green, and was 54 years of age. He was living in Australia; he was deaf, practically blind, absolutely destitute, threatened with eviction and the cutting off of his domestic water supply, and was living on charity. Offer to City Refused Mr. Tracy said defendant made an offer to the Christchurch City Council to give the city a statue, estimates of its cost ranging from £IOOO to £2OOO. The council refused the offer, maintaining that defendant should make proper provision for his family. Immediately after this anonymous offers of clock towers to New Brighton and Sumner were made and subsequent events—though the whole thing was cloaked in the deepest secrecy—showed that R. E. Green made the offers. Recently, continued Mr. Tracy, ChristchurcL was treated to the edifying spectacle of one of the clock towers being unveiled with public ceremony, while the son of the man who had given it was living on charity. Cecil Green, of Sydney, said in evidence that his brother Frederick and his wife had had to subsist on Government ration work at approximately 17s lid a fortnight; in addition, he had been for the most of this period under medical attention, was completely wrecked in health.

Charles John Beken said he had known Green for 50 years, and knew that he had had a quarrel with his family. Green had said that he would buy an annuity and get rid of the rest of his money. It was no use making a will for his family to upset. Defendant's Position Mr. llussell denied that defendant had stripped himself of all his assets to depiive his family of any benefits they might obtain. Defendant's position was much different now from what it had been at the time of the previous Court case He had an annuity of £l3O 6s Bd, from which he paid maintenance at £1 a week by order of the Court to one relative. Ho had another annuity when he was previously before the Court, but had since then sold it for £4OO, and proposed to take out an annuity for the protection of his wife. This would return £7B a year, andtheir total income would be only £156 6s Bd, out of which they had to pay £7B for a housemaid. Mrs. Green was not in good health, and money was needed for medicines and so on. Kate Alicia Robena Stevens, the wife of a relief worker, admitted that she and her daughter had advanced £4OO to defendant to buy an annuity for his wife. " I am satisfied that Frederick Ernest Green is a destitute person," said the magistrate in summing up, " and the only other question is the ability of defendant to contribute toward the maintenance of his son. I am not at all satisfied with defendant's attitude about the £4OO, and I have very grave doubts of his bona fides about providing an annuity for his wife." The magistrate adjourned the case until October 14 to see what defendant did with the £4OO.