£450,000 ESTATE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23080, 4 July 1938, Page 14

£450,000 ESTATE

CLAIMS TO SHAKES HUNDREDS OF APPLICANTS COMPLICATED POSITION [from our own correspondent] SYDNEY, Juno 30 Although 600 claims have been received for shares in the distributable portion of tho £450,000 estate of tho late Mr. Thomas Walker, additional claims are still being received from England, South America and New Zealand. Others have been made from France and Norway, as well as from parts of Australia. Tho first claims to be heard ,by tho Master in Equity are thoso in which the claimants say they are in tho fourth degree of blood relationship to the lato Mr. Walker. Under the terras of his will the fund now divisible has to bo distributed on. a basis which assumes that ho lived as long as his daughter, Dame Eadith Walker. One of the important questions to bo argued is whether tho children of Mr. Walker's first cousins, once removed, who died beforo Dame Eadith, are entitled to tho share their parents would have received had they survived. These claimants would be in tho sixth degree of kinship. Some Prominent Claimants Among the claimants as cousins are Lady Wilhelmina Devonshire, wife of Sir James Devonshire, of Wimbledon, London, and Colonel Charles Lyon Sidey, of Weston-Patrick, Hants. Their mother, a daughter of James Walker, of Wallerawang (of which he was tho original grantee), was a cousin of tho mother of tho Marchioness of Abergavenny, who is also a claimant. Sir Thomas Bell, of Helensborough, County Dumbarton, claims through his mother, Jane Walker, a daughter of an unclo of Mr. Thomas Walker, who married Imrio Bell, at Calcutta. She was a niece of James Walker, of Wallerawang. Tho Marchioness of Abergavenny claims in the sixth degree of kinship. 'Her descent is from tho lato Mr. Thomas Walker's maternal grandparent. She is a daughter of Jano Elizabeth Walker, whose father was a brother of Mr. Walker's mother. Long Task for Master in Equity Though the duration of this inquiry can only be a matter of conjecture, and opinions on the subject vary considerably, there is little doubt that the Master will be engaged for many weeks, possibly months, in unravelling the relationships of this extensive family. An important factor in tho case is the appearance of a number of claims to kinship in tho fourth degree with tho late Mr. Thomas Walker. These claimants may not number more than 20, but if one of them proved kinship. GOO other claimants to kinship in tho fifth or more remote degrees will be eliminated. ' It has been suggested on behalf of claimants that tho parents of Thomas Walker had 11 instead of seven children. Any person proving _ direct descent from a brother or a sister of Thomas Walker will establish kinship in tho fourth degree.