A Hunt for Millions.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12474, 10 September 1904, Page 2 (Supplement)

A Hunt for Millions.

•STORY OF A LOST FORTUNE. Inquiiies directed towards the recovery of the famous Sinclair millions are being vigorously conducted by an Edinburgh law-agent, who* has been employed by certaii of the heiis to tiic long-lost"fortune of Major Sin clair. The stoiy of the lost treasure is a most romantic one. It commence!* awav back towards the end cf the cigh*epntLcentury, when Major Sinclair, who was ;< native" of Caithness-shire, first joined the service of the old East India Company, nnd 'eft his country to seek his fortune in the east. It appears that Sinclair rose to the rank of Major, and subsequently entered into the tea-planting business. .The te.-.i trade then was a much more lucrative branch of commerce than it is now, and there is no doubt that the Major's cnterpiise prospered. Sinclair married and had one daughter, whom he sent home to the Old Countiy. when she was still a child. The girl remained in Scotland, and it has been established that her father after the lapse of a few years sold his estates in the East, "Indies, possibly with the intention of shortly returning" home. This, however, be never did. He died abroad, and it is believed he war killed in one of the numerous skirmishes that occured with the natives at that time. He left behind him what in thoso days was a very large fortune. If, as is bc'ievcd to have been the case, the estate was calculated in gold rupees, ib amounted to close on £IOO,OOO. His foitune Major Sinclair bequeathed by will to his daughter. Here, 'however, is just where the mystery a.ppears. The daughter never received « penny cf the money, and the question that remains for solution is, what has beciine of her father's fortune? Theie is not tin slightest doubt that Major Sinclair left behind him a very large sum of money. The will was proved by his executor, who h alleged to have entered into possession of the est-ite. Rut little else than fugitivtraces of (lie lost fortune have yet hew found. . Miss Sinclair, it has hem discovered, settled in her ■lather's* native county, where she married a gentleman bearirg the same nam' as herself. Her last surviving daoghlC! died not veiy many ye:ns ago, and the search is now being prosecuted on b'.'lial 1 "f some of the grand-children and gicatgrandchildren of Major Sinclair. 'I limonev, wherever it is, if interest has M'.i acciu'ing on it, must nw iini-mnt to ah ut two millions. Ry some means or another hints of the search have got ybiejad will the result that the gentleman who has Ih case in hand has fur sonic time past beer flooded with inquiries from aspiring cl'im ants, residing in-all paits of the Kingdom whose onlv claim is that they happen ti bear the name of the man whose foitnm has been lost for over a ceutuiy. One in quiry, indeed, came all the way from Nor \vti\\ During the last two i-r three week' quite a h-st of ; "i.'i.-ati ;is have bs-m sen' in to the office >f ' •• " Eve: mg Dispatch, in the columns rf -,vhi. ii 1...' eailiest a» nouncement rega-rdjiig the millions was made. ,