DECLARED DEAD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23073, 25 June 1938, Page 18

DECLARED DEAD

MISSING 15 TEARS SON'S QUARREL WITH FATHER SUBSEQUENT DISAPPEARANCE ' DISPOSAL OF SHARE IN ESTATE [bt telegraph—press association] CHRISTCHUECH, .Friday The mysterious disappearance in 1923 of a young Christchurch contractor, George Frederick Maddison, was discussed before Mr. Justice Northcroft in the Supreme Court yesterday, when the Court was asked to declare him to ho dead, and to authorise the division among his surviving brother and two sisters of his share in the estate of his father, Frank Samuel Maddison, who -"died on May 26, 1929. After considering the matter overnight, His Honor gave judgment that Maddison was presumed to be dead. The facts were, snid counsel, that . the missing man, aged about 21 or 22, ;was a contractor and was in financial difficulties.. His father advanced him gome money, but they had a violent quarrel and on February 2, 1923, he disappeared and had never been 6een or heard of since. His share of his father's estate was about £6OO. The father was rather a hard man, but the eon was much attached to his mother and sisters. Since the date of his disappearance, however, they had received jio communication from him. According to the deposition of Amy Bertha Maddison, her brother Was engaged under contract to the Public .Works Department to build the approaches to a bridge in the neighbourhood of Cust, and was camping on the job with workmen. On February 2 the men returned to work after lunch, and Maddison was to have followed immediately. However, he was never seen again. When his disappearance was reported the father went to the camp and found his missing son's clothing, money and a motor-cycle still there.. The quarrel between Maddison and his lather,, which occurred a day or two before the disappearance, wa3 over her brother's using some money borrowed from his father to pay his employees instead of paying a debt to a money lender. j «■ "Without authority," said His Honor, "f would have some difficulty in deciding to declare Maddison dead, especially as his father, having made an investigation, considered he had cleared out. However, it is a rule that a person who has not been heard of ■ for seven years should be presumed dead. There being no evidence to cne contrary, Maddison must be held to hav6 predeceased his father."