GHOSTS FROM THE PAST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22066, 23 September 1933, Page 21

GHOSTS FROM THE PAST

JOHN BANKS AND HIS MONEY. Strange ghosts from the past centuries sometimes flit through the solemn Court of Chancery in London. Memories of kind-hearted John Banks, the Master ot the Haberdashers Company over 200 years ago, were recalled for an hour or _ two before Justice Farrell in a recent petition by the company. • „ , By his will in 1716 John Banks gave all his estate in Westminster on trust to pay a sum of £220 a year in annuities and charities. The property consisted of leaseholds involving mortgage and other complicated arrangements. In 1725 a question concerning the trust came before the Court of Chancery, which took action several times during the eighteenth century, and when a mortgage of £IO,OOO was repaid in 1792 an order of the court directed the trustees to pay into court the balance of the income from that sum so that it should accumulate as provision for expiration of leases. , Various changes have since been made in the investment of the sum in Chancery, and in recent years the annual income from the trust fund has been £1543. The Haberdashers Company came to the conclusion that a larger yield was possible from the fund, and they have persuaded the judge to pay it over to them again. He consented, subject to certain stipulations. Thus, after 200 years the guardianship of the estate reverts to the body which originally held it.