£200,000 CHRISTMAS GIFTS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XL, Issue 13156, 16 August 1913, Page 9

£200,000 CHRISTMAS GIFTS.

PROBLEM OP MR D. OGDEN MILL'S £7,200,000 WILL. NEW YORK, June 28. The estate of the late Mr Darius Ogden MlU£, the financier, originally estimated at over £10,000,000, has been appraised at approximately £7,200,000. The final appraisal depends on the court's decision regarding the exact significance of a letter written by the millionaire m 1909 to his daughter, Mrs Whitelaw Reid, widow of the late American Ambassador m i London, and his son, Mr Ogden Mills. "I send to each of yon," he wrote, "my usual gjbrjstmas present of a million dollars."

The appraiser contends that the £400,000 was transferred by deed of gift m contemplation of death, and therefore liable to death, duties, but Mrs Whitelaw Reid and her brother insist that the letter proves that their father intended the money merely as his customary Christmas present. How long tho millionaire had observed the custom of giving his children £200,000 each at Christmas is, however, not divulged. With the exception of £100,000 bequeathed to public institutions, the entire estate is divided between Mrs Whitelaw Reid and her brother.