MILLIONS IN CHANCERY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3882, 7 August 1928, Page 28

MILLIONS IN CHANCERY.

THE JENNINGS FORTUNE.

FURTHER. AUCKLAND CLAIMANTS,

AUCKLAND, August 2. Among the principal New Zealand claimants to the Jennings fortune, amounting to £53,000,000, which has been in Chancery for over a century, are various members of the Howell family in Auckland. v “ If the money ever comes out of Chancery we have not the slightest doubt that our claim can be established,” said Mr Edward Howell, of Gr'eenlane, when discussing the family’s claim to participation. Air Howell, who retired five years ago from the position of Government fruit inspector in Auckland, said it was not very clear why the millions had come to be in Chancery. .His own impression was that the late William Jennings, one of three Birmingham ironmasters who amassed the fortune in the nineteenth century, was murdered, leaving no will, but the accounts were not very definite on the point. The main obstacle towards the release of the fortune is a missing birth certificate, for the production of which a reward of 10,000 guineas is offered. “My grandfather spent large sums of money fighting the case, but, like all the others, he got nowhere in the end,” said Mr Howell. “Many of the claimants got through the whole of their cash before they gave up the fight. Nevertheless, we have never been in doubt that we are in the direct line of descent, and my brother in England is closely watching the progress of the case.”