CAME TOO LATE

Southland Times, Issue 17546, 9 January 1914, Page 2

CAME TOO LATE

STORY OF A HEROIC STRUGGLE. An application just made to the Supreme Court for letters of administration in the estate of a woman who died recently at Carterton has revealed the tragic hand of fate. The deceased woman and her husband had a small farm, which was mortgaged. With the help of the children, who were, however, very young, they milked a few cows and undertook general farming, but things went all wrong from the start. Three of their cows died from tutu poisoning, then a barn containing oats and hay was burned, down, the crops turned out rank failures, and finally the mortgagee foreclosed. The husband and his wife had a terrible struggle to keep body and soul together and to provide for their children. Their intimate friends had no idea of their hardships. The woman went out washing and scrubbing, and the husband took on labouring work. He developed an Illness, and the whole brunt of the battle of providing food fell upon the wife. Bravely she struggled on, but the struggle proved too much. The meagre fare the family had was barely enough, and. half-starved and overworked, the poor woman took 111 and never recovered, her death occurring shortly after. The death of the woman brought the pitiful condition of the family under the notice of friends In Wairarapa, and the husband and children were. sent up north to recuperate. Exactly a fortnight after the wife’s death a letter addressed to the wife reached the husband from a firm of solicitors in New York. On opening the letter the husband ascertained that the solicitors had been searching for two years for his wife, who had been left three thousand pounds and some property in New York by a relative there. By the terms of the will the property passed to the husband in the event of the death of the wife, and it was in this connection that letters of administration were applied for and the sad story came to light.