LAWYERS’ BILLS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8363, 25 February 1913, Page 4

LAWYERS’ BILLS

•Lawyers are the same everywhere, wrote the Paris correspondent of a London paper last month. No matter where you go they are hide-bound with trumpery little formalities, all of which have to be paid for. A correspondent of one of the great morning papers in Paris tells how it is costing hi* family 68fr. 800. to be in,a position to seU a lOOfr. 3"per cent, bond for 88fr. 750., tho current price. , “My grandmother died, leaving a IOOf. bond, nominative, producing her 3f. a year. Her heirs are three children, namely, my father, who is dead, and his two sisters, who are married. My father left myself and two sisters; there are, consequently, five of ns to divide the 3f. annual income. We thought we would sell the bond, and here is a list of the documents wo had to obtain and their o€6t: . A declaration of the estate of my grandmother 2.50 Ditto of my grandfather O.SO A certificate setting forth that my father and his sisters were the sole heirs of my grandmother ... 22.00 \ certificate setting forth that my two sisters and X are the sole' heirs of ray late father 22.00 Marriage certificate of Aunt No. T... 2.00 Marriage certificate of Aunt No. 2... 2.00 Marriage certificate of Sister No. X 2.03 Marriage certificate of Sister No. 2 2.00 Certificate of payment of death duty on my grandmother's estate ... 0.70 Do. on my father’s estate 0.75 A procuration to eel) the bond 5.00 Letters, postages, brokerage, etc. ... 7.09 f. 68.80 The correspondent seems to take a very philosophic view when ho thanks his lucky stars that his grandmother had not six daughters: that these had not all quarried and died, leaving three children iat the time of her death.