AMAZING WILL

Otago Witness, Issue 3862, 20 March 1928, Page 23

AMAZING WILL

HUMAN PERFECTION.

(From Our Own Correspo dent.) SYDNEY, March 1

The public was stirred some years ago when, in one of the most extraordinary wills ever signed, the late Mr Peter Stuckey Mitchell, a wealthy New South Wales grazier, bequeathed the best part of his fortun e to competitions designed to discover the most perfect specimens, physically and mentally, of the human race in both sexes. This novel application of wealth, which appeared to hav e faded into oblivion, is now likely to be set in motion with the completion of the sale of Mr Mitchell’s interests in a big estate. Little or nothing was known of Mr Mitchell until his will startled the public and set all a-flutter the hearts of those who believed themselves to be god-lik e in their physical, mental, and general attributes, but it is not improbable that the science of eugenics claimed him as one of its sunporters. Perhaps he was inspired by the

late Sir Francis Galton, when, in 1905, ha set apart the tidy sum of £45,000 for promoting the study of national eugenics. Mr Mitchell, however, must have been a man of homely, simple virtues, for he laid it down strictly that the woman who wins his prize in that sex must not only be of perfect physical proportions, but also of high moral character, must have a good knowledge of the Bible, and must also excel in th e domestic arts.