CLAIRVOYANT’S WEALTH

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1930, Page 7

CLAIRVOYANT’S WEALTH

ESTATE WORTH £ 9,000. , REMARKABLE LIFE HISTORY. - ~ 1 i ; V,„* t’jri*-• Portions of the life history of Mary Scales; a clairvoyant, who died on April 8, 1928, leaving an estate which has been valued at about £59,000, were dis-! closed lately in the Sydney Equity Court, which was asked to determine 20 questions relating to the, administration of her estate,’ V . ; ; ‘ Though unlble to read or write, except sign her own name, Mrs. Scales not only amassed a considerable fortune, but she made a special trip to England and conducted an appeal before the Privy Council with some success, after an equity suit arising out of her husband’s will, brought by her against the executors, had failed, and an appeal from that decision had ben dismissed by the Full Court. ’ ■ > > U

The estate included. 1099 shares in public companies, £4OOO payable out of the estate of her husband, who died in x 1920, and eight acres of land at Deewhy, reputed to be worth about £7OOO. By her will Mrs. Scales left £lOOO to C. T. B. Glasscock, one of her executors, for the benefit of his children, and, subject to a legacy of £l'oo to Thelma A. Round, she left the residue of-her estate to her trustees, to be invested, out of which certain legacies and weekly payments were to be paid to her children and relatives.

Mary Scales married George Scales, a stonemason, who came out to New South Wales from England in 1833. He had three (children by a former Wife. For a time they lived near Sydney, first .- in a rough shed built by the husband and then for 10 years in a house built by him. In their early Struggles. Mrs. Seales conducted a laundry business, in which her husband assisted, but from 1897 to 1913 she carried on business as ■ a beauty specialist and clairvoyant. ■ ’ Mrs. Scales saved, considerable Bums / and from time to time handed money to her husband to invest for her. When / the husband died she claimed that certain property standing in his name had been held by him on her behalf; In the course of the hearing of toe ../• equity suit Mrs. Scales dramatically told the Court how she had directed her hua-> ■ band to dig up from the garden several . thousands of sovereigns, which she said she had planted in d tin beneath the . ground. The Court-decided against her. She appealed to the Full Court, which also decided against her. Undaunted, she appealed to the Privy Council, which allowed the appeal in respect of £4OOO and the investment thereof, but said that, in all other respects, the judgment of the Full Court should stand. Proceedings in connection with this matter arn still pending. The Permanent Trustee Company now asked the Chief Judge in Equity, Mr. Justice Harvey,(to decide:—Whether the trusts of the will were to be administered on the footing that Mrs. Seales was successful in the Privy Council appeal, and, if not, did the gifts of income payable in that event fall into the accumulated fund of the will; and, if not, upon what trusts was such income held? His Honour answered the question in the negative. , Another question was: Was the giftover of the “investment,” properties” and “accumulated” funds to deceased’s next-of-kin limited to statutory next-of-kin, or who otherwise were entitled to participate in such gift-over? His Honour decided that the direction to accumulate income was only valid for 21 years from the death of the testatria and that there was an intestacy as to th.- accumulation of income between that time and the expiration of the period fixed by the testatrix for distribution—2l years after the death of the last survivor of her three’children. It- was stated that property occupied by Mrs. Ann Foley, of Fitzroy, Victoria, Mrs. Scales’ mother, had been held in trust by Mrs. Seales for her, but no, deed iu respect of a declaration of trust could be found. His Honour said that, ns no deed was forthcoming, he must, unfortunately, hold that the property did not pass to Mrs. Foley. >. ' xA proviso that £5 a wek be paid to Mrs. Scales’ two daughters was held to bt| valid.