BURKE FORTUNE
"EQUITY MARATHON" "PAUPER'S" .WO,OUO SYDNEY, June 16. After hearing evidence and addresses at 34 sittings the Master in Equity reached the end of another stage in what has come to be talked about as the Equity marathon, the allusion being to the inquiry to determine who may be the next of kin of Martin Edward Burke.
Burke, first a policeman in Victoria, and later a country postmaster in New South Wales, died intestate. It was supposed that he was a pauper, but he left an estate of over £40,000, and the Public Trustee received claims from more than 1000 people to share in the distribution as next of kin.
An inquiry to determine who were entitled to any of Burke's fortune was directed by the court. First the Acting-Master sat for 20 days, and the conclusion he arrived at was that Burke left only one relative—the wife of a small farmer in Ireland. This finding was contested, and as a result a commission took copious evidence in Ireland, and on copies of this being received the problem was again taken up by the Master—and the largest bar seen in this court for many years. After ho has reached a decision the matter will once more come into Court.
A curious feature of the inquiry has been that no evidence was forthcoming to show that Burke had ever given a hint of his parentage to any of his friends, or referred to relations. Nor had he, so far as is known, ever spoken of being in possession of money. The source of his fortune remains a mystery.
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Bibliographic details
Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19372, 9 July 1937, Page 9
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268BURKE FORTUNE Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19372, 9 July 1937, Page 9
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