RELATIVES FOUND

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 75, Issue 6441, 3 November 1947, Page 5

RELATIVES FOUND

LATE MR ROBERT GREEN EARLY CONNECTION WITH KIHIKIHI i Relatives have been found to share the £lOB,OOO estate of Robert Green of Otorohanga, who died intestate in August, 1940, according to a judgment by Mr Justice Johnston, in which his Honour held that Maggie Catherine Jane Green, May Young, Sarah Jane Carse de Gomez (all deceased) and Margaret Kirkwood w r ere Green’s first cousins. It remains now for the Public Trustee, who administers the estate, and formally contested the action by overseas relatives, to advertise for other claimants within a specified time. If there are none the estate will -go to the surviving cousin and trustees representing the other three. A final settlement is expected within six months, but death and succession duties have reduced the £168,000 to about £55,000. Born in Northumberland, Robert Green, or “Bobbie” Green as he was generally known, came to New Zealand some 65 years ago and began work packing stores into Taumarunui from Kihikihi for Mr J. W. Ellis, of Ellis and Burnand Ltd. He became fluent in Maori and eventually he and Mr R. P. Colebrook set up in business on their own account as storekeepers in the King Country. Their numerous bush stores were eventually bought out by the Farmers’ Trading Company. £168,000 Fortune Mr Green’s was probably the greatest fortune ever made in the King Country, yet his daily life gave no evidence that he was a wealthy man. He lived in a tiny house on railway land abutting the main trunk line almost opposite the Otorohanga railway station; his few odds and ends of furniture were almost valueless; he attended no private social gatherings nor did he entertain; only a few male acquaintances were permitted to see inside his cottage. Those who knew him estimated that his personal expenditure seldom exceeded 30s a week. He was, however, a wide reader and favoured good sound literature, yet he was never known to buy a book. He borrowed them. Mr Green owned a number of houses in Otorohanga and also had farming interests in the district. To visit his farm he w’ould walk both ways. He was a power in the Otorohanga Saleyards Company until his death. Apart from his commercial investments he was agent for an insurance company, a source of income which he was reluctant to leave when at the age of 80_he was brought to hospital in Hamilton, where he died. He paid a visit to England about 16 years ago but had little to say about it on his return.