SUPREME COURT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26176, 12 June 1946, Page 7

SUPREME COURT

ORDER BY CONSENT Mr Justice Kennedy made an order by consent in the Supreme Court yesterday approving of the proposal put before him, that the Perpetual Trustees and Agency Company, Ltd., executors of the will of Colin Archibald Wardrop, plasterer, Dunedin, should stand possessed of the whole of the estate, to be held in trust for the widow of the deceased, Elsie Evelyn Wardrop, absolutely. Mr R. G. Calvert appeared for the plaintiff, Mrs Wardrop, and Mr E. J. Anderson for the Perpetual Trustees and Agency Company and the infant children.

The amount involved was £5Ol Terms of a Will

" I am satisfied that it is impracticable to carry out the trust created by the testator, and that the scheme propounded is the proper one, and that it should have the approval of the court, and accordingly the court approves of the scheme,” said his Honor after hearing an application under the Religious Charitable and Educational Trusts Act, 1908. Mr E. A. Duncan, in asking for the order, said that James McKeeman, a farmer, of Oturehua, who had died in October, 1922, had left certain farm properties, totalling 750 acres, in Central Otago, to the Presbyterian Social Service Association for the purpose of establishing a training farm and home for boys, subject to a life interest in his estate to his two sisters—Eliza Jane McKeeman(who had died in June, 1937) and his sister Nancy (who had died on March 2, 1945). The F.S.S.A. has taken advice on the matter, said Mr Duncan, and had come to the conclusion that it would be neither practicable nor expedient to set up such a farm on the lands mentioned. The association maintained a farm in connection with its orphanages, and it was felt that the intention of the trust could be carried out if the Central Otago properties were sold, and a fund established out of the proceeds of the sale for the benefit of boys from particular orphanages. The boys would receive training as farmers and also be able to attend Massey and Lincoln Colleges. Mr Duncan said that Nancy McKeeman, the last survivor, had also by her will left an adjoining property totalling 1412 acres, to the P.S.S.A. upon similar trusts. Again the circumstances were practically identical. Alternative Approved His Honor said that this application was similar to the one he had just heard. He said that it would also be impracticable and uneconomical to give effect to the testators’ wishes because the land was not of sufficient variety for farm training, and, moreover, a considerable capital outlay would be required. The P.S.S.A. had prepared an alternative scheme which it considered would meet the intentions of the testators. His Honor said he was satisfied it was a proper scheme, and should have the sanction and approval of the court. An order was accordingly made.