THE LATE MR TAYLOR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 17, 5 September 1911, Page 5

THE LATE MR TAYLOR.

VALUE OF HIS ESTATE. (Per Press Association ) Christchurch, September 4. The special meeting of the T. E. Taylor Memorial Committee was held this afternoon to receive a statement from the treasurer relative to the exact financial position of Mrs Taylor and tlio family, and led to some heated discussion concerning the parties responsible for the circulation of statements described to bo wilfully and maliciously false as to tlio value of the late Mr Taylor’s estate and the estate of his widow. The Mayor, who presided, ruled that he would not allow any argument, liquor v. nolicense, to take place. Mr G; Bowron, a member of the executive committee, persisted in making statements to which the Mayor objected, and finally Mr Bengali left the room, expressing regret that he had been driven to adopt that course. The meeting then broke up. Before the climax came, however, a statement detailing the value of Mr and Mrs Taylor’s estates was made by Mr Salter, which statement, the Mayor said, furnished a complete answer to the allegations made to the effect that Mrs Taylor had been left most comfortably off. Mr Salter stated that that morning, Mr Cole, Mr Isitt, Mr McCombs and himself had gone carefully into the figures relative to Mr and Mrs Taylor’s estates. They wont to the Valuation Office and obtained the Government valuations of the properties they had to deal with. The position was as follows:—The total value or the properties in which Mrs Taylor hal an interest was £IBB6 13s 4d (that included the house wdiere the family were living) ; one-third interest in another property adjoining; a property in Hazenden road, and a prop irty at Akaroa. The total income fiom ail sources, including the property let by Mr Taylor, was £lB5 los Id, which, after deducting rates and insurances (£33) and £3O for upkeep of the dwellings, left a net income of £122 15s 6d. They had already stated, after going into the figures rougldy, that the value of Dir Taylor’s property was £2340 17s Gd. There were two items which were interest producing, namely, a loan oil' a mortgage and a house property in Harman street. The other propertieir-weve not intorest-nroduci.'ig, and the bulk ,of the cash would have to go to pay debts and to discharge a legacy to Mr Taylor’s mother. The statement, therefore, made by Mr Bishop at the opening meeting w r as well within the facts, and the total income available was not as much by £SO as was expected would be the case. The figures he had presented had been gone into by the four he had named, the actual figures from the Government Valuation Department being taken. . y, ' The Mayor: I am very pleased to hear that statement, because I think it will be regarded as a complete ansj wer to any insinuations made on the subject.

A PUBLICAN’S DENIAL. Christchurch, September 4. Mr E. Norclon, secretary of the Licensed Victuallers’ Association, the gentleman referred to by name at the meeting as the one primarily responsible for the circulation of false rumours through New Zealand of Mrs Taylor’s means, gives an emphatic denial to the statements made. Ho explains that while having tea with a friend and another gentleman whom he did not know at the time, but who ho had since ascertained was a friend of Mr L. M. Isitt, he was drawn into a No-licenso argument. The conversation was brought round to the question of the Taylor Memorial Fund. Ho said, in the course of conversation, that he had just been informed that Mrs Taylor had £7OOO in her own right, that he had further been informed that, that fact ( would be made public in a few days. I He did not repeat that statement either before or after that conversation at the tea rooms, and never imagined that any person would bo guilty of such a breach of confidence as to repeat a friendly conversation. He gave an emphatic denial to the statement made at the meeting that either he or the Trade had done anything to injure the Taylor Memorial Fund.