STORY OF A REMITTANCE.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12754, 29 March 1910, Page 1

STORY OF A REMITTANCE.

j By a peculiar chain of circumstan- I ces tlio University of Otago will fur- I ther benefit to tlio extent of possibly £100 under the will of the late Arthur Beverley, the well known scientist. The story has the elements of a mild romance. Away back in tlie 'fifties the glamour of tho Australian goldfields drew Mr. Beverley, among thousands of others, from the quiet humdrum of life in Scotland. He left an aged mother, to whom until hei* death a few years later he continued to write and forward money. One of those remittances, despatched from Victoria about 1858, was on the way ! when the old lady died. The money had been sent to tlie care of the clergyman, the. Rev. James Stirling, and he, being unaware of tho address of the sender, was at a lo.ss what. 'to do with it. Eventually he decided to place it in the savings bank, and by. a trick of memory he opened the acl count in the name of "Alexander Beverley." The, years rolled by, and nobody appeared to claim the money. At length the time came when, by the winding up of the estate of Mr. Stirling.ythe money would have been paid into Chancery in the absence of a claimant. The duty of winding up fell to tho lot of the deceased clergyman's son, Lord Justice Sir James 1 Stirling, and he determined to make one more effort .to ascertain who was entitled to the money. One of the advertisements for the next-of-kin of "Alexander Beyerley, who had been in Victoria. at such and such a date" went to a Melbourne paper, whero itcaught tlie eye of Mr. Dunn, who was for many year a book-seller in George stieet, Dunedin. He suspected the name, and wrote to the solicitors, ,advising them to communicate witli Sir Robert Stout, whom h^e knew as a close friend of Mr. Beverley. The letter from the solicitors passed' Sir Robert while he was on his : way to England, and eventually caught him up here. As a" result he met Lord Justice Stirling and they discussed i the case. Sir Robert held the opinion from tlie beginning that the name "Alexander" was a mistake for '.'Arthur." He described Mr.' Beverley's accomplishments. When Sir Robert mentioned that he .was fond of making telescopes, microscopes, etc., Lord Justice Stirling was at once convinced ,"That is the man," he declared. "I, havo one of his microscopes myself." Haying 'satisfied himself as to the identity of the two Beverleys, Sir James "considered the way clear for the application of the money as-pro-vided in Mr. Beverley's will. It will, therefore, go to the University of Otago.