MAKE YOUR WILL

Waka Maori, Volume 10, Issue 7, 7 April 1874, Page 82

MAKE YOUR WILL

By a Legal Gentleman. These are a few short directions to you, to show you how a will should be made; and I wish you to pay particular attention to my words. 1. Tour will must be written in ink on paper or parchment. There must not be any alterations, or erasures, or additions to that writing. 2. Pebsons.—When you have to put the names of any persons in your will, give their names in full, their residence, and also their trade, or some distinguishing mark. There may be two men of the same name; but if you give their residence, that will suffice to identify the person you refer to without mistake. Wife. —Always give the name of your wife; e.g., I give to my dear wife Sarah. Sons and Daughters.—Always give a description of your sons and daughters, besides giving their names ; e.g., My eldest soil Robert; my second son Thomas ; my eldest daughter Elizabeth ; my second daughter Jane. If any of your daughters are married or widow, give the description of the husband in every case; e.g.,

My third daughter Mary, the wife of A.E., of Pitoone, Wellington, farmer. My fourth daughter Margaret, the widoiv of the late H. 1., of Makara, Wellington, butcher. 3. Property is of two kinds: veal property, which cannot be moved that is, land, houses, &c. 5 personal property, which can be moved—that is, monev, furniture, horses, sheep, cattle, &c. Therefore, when you give away any property in your will, you should describe the particular property without any mistake, in the same way as you should describe persons; e.g., My house at Kaiwara, which is 011 the City of Wellington side of the River Kaiwara; or my land at Kaiwara, which is on the Ngahauranga side of the River Kaiwara. Also the same with personal property; e.g., My silver watch and gold chain ; my ear ornaments ; my new saddle and bridle; my black horse, branded, &c.; my red cow branded, &c., &c. ' 4. Executors are the persons whom you name in your will that are to carry out your wishes after your death. Unless you appoint executors in your will, the Supreme Court will have to appoint somebody to carry out your wishes, and this is always expensive. Therefore, you should select from among your most trusted friends two persons for the purpose of giving effect to your will. You should ask them to consent to distribute your property after yout* death. If they consent, then you put their names in your will as executors. After your death, they will have to take your will to the Supreme Court; and the Judge will authorize them to act as executors, to pay your debts, to collect money owing to you, &c., &c.; and when they have distributed your property according to your wishes, they will have to prove to the Judge of the Supreme Court that they have done so in a satisfactory manner. So you see the Supreme Court will see that they do their duty properly. 5. Trustees are persons appointed in your will to take charge of the property of any of your children that are not twenty-one years of age. When you have young children, you should appoint one of your executors to be guardian of the children; and you should also appoint your two executors to be trustees of the children's property. Then in your will you give your property to these trustees, who will usa it as their own, but only on behalf of your children. When your children become twenty-one years of age, the trustees will have to hand over to each child bis share of your property, and then the trustees will have no more control over it. By appointing trustees to take charge of the property, you avoid the chance of the property being destroyed by negligence or waste. 6. Remainder. —It may happen that at your death all your children are young; and it might happen that they should all die before they were twenty-one years of age, and before they had married. Therefore it is always best to name in your will some particular friend or relation, to whom you would wish your property to go in the event of the death of

all your children. By doing this you avoid altogether the chance of your property being made the subject of dispute among all your relations. 7: Signing and "Witnessing the Will.—This is by far the most important part, of the whole proceeding, and therefore pay particular attention to these words. In my previous writings, I said that the law would take great pains to find out what your real and intentions were from your will, and would do its best to give effect to those wishes. But, with regard to the signing and witnessing of your will, the law is like a stone, fixed and immovable. The law is imperative that your will shall be signed and witnessed in a particular manner; and therefore you may be assured of this, that if you do not obey that law to the very letter, your will will not be of any good whatever. The law says the will must be signed at the foot' thereof, and such signature must be made or acknowledged by the man who makes the will in the presence of. two or more witnesses, who shall attest and subscribe such will in the presence of the man who makes the will. Therefore, when you have made your will, you must ask two witnesses at least to see you sign the will. Then you put your name at the foot of the will close to the last line of the writing, so that there will not be room for any new matter to be written in between the last line and the signature. Then you say to the two witnesses, " This is my will; I wish you to witness it." Then they put their names on the paper as witnesses. They both must see you write your name; you mußt see both of them write their names; and they must see each other sign. Until the will is signed and witnessed, not one of the three persons ought even to turn his back. It is not sufficient to be in the same room; you must all see the names written. If the man whose will is made cannot write, then he should ask somebody else to sign the will for him. One of the two witnesses could do this, buli it is better to get a third person to do so. And mark this, if anybody signs your will for you, Tie is not to write Ms own name at the foot of the will, but he is to write the name of the man who is making the will. 8. Witnesses.—Anybody can be a witness to a will, whether man, woman, or child, so long as the child is old enough to understand what the writing means. None of the witnesses need read the will, indeed they ought not to do so. It is sufficient if you tell the witnesses that it is your will; the witnesses ought to know that what they are signing is a will. Only one word more about witnesses, but this is very important: you must not ask your wife, or children, or anybody to whom you have given any property by your will, to witness it; for, if they do so, the law says that the witnessing will be good, and the will also will be good, but that particular witness shall not have the property you may have

given him in your will. This is done to prevent secret influences over a man who may be ill, who might be persuaded by somebody near him to make a will in his favour. This is all that I have to say about making your will. I know it will not teach you how to make a will. You ought not to attempt yourself to make your own will. G-o to a lawyer, or some educated man, who will do it properly for you. But X have said enough to show you that great care is requisite in making a will, so as to avoid all chance of mistake in names of persons or in description of property; and I have also said enough to put you on your guard when signing the will, to make you careful that you should have it signed in the proper manner. Having said so much about the making of a will, I have added to this writing a " Form of "Will," —that is to say, an example of a will that I think you will find useful. By this will all of your children will have equal shares in your land and houses, and also will divide the horses, cattle, &c., equally between them, but only after your debts have been paid. This will provides that your debts are to be paid in the first case, and also your funeral expenses,—that is, the cost of your burial. This will provides that your executors, who are also trustees of the property of the young children, shall have your property as if it were their own, for the purpose of being able to sell, but they will only be entitled to sell as much as may be necessary to pay your debts. The payment of debts is one of the first laws obligatory on a'Christian. The will also provides that your executors may sell any land if they have a price offered to them that would benefit your children. But your executors are not forced to sell.

Poem of a Will. This is the last will and testament of me, A.E., of Karori, Wellington, in the Colony of New Zealand. I desire that all my just debts, funeral and testamentary expenses, shall be paid. I give to my dear wife Annie seven houses, Jive cows, one saddle and bridle. I devise and bequeath all my real and personal property not hereby otherwise disposed of, to H. 1., of and K.M., of , to hold to them and their heirs for ever, or to them and their executors and administrators, according to the several natures of my said property, upon the following trusts to be performed by them or their survivors or survivor of them, his heirs, executors, or administrators, or their or his assigns. Upon trust to retain or realize my invested personalty, and (after paying my funeral and testamentary expenses, debts, and legacies,) to invest the proceeds, with the sale moneys of my personal or

real estate, in or upon' the Government securities of the Colony. Upon trust, to sell my real estate with the discretion of absolute owners. Subject to the foregoing trusts, the premises including as well any purchased real estate as my unsold real estate devised in trust for sale, shall be held in trust for all and every iny present or future children or child equally, if more than one, who shall attain twenty-one years of age, or marry, and who shall be living at my death, or shall leave children surviving me. And on failure of the foregoing trusts, in trust for 1nT.0., of , absolutely, or if he be 'dead, for his executors or administrators for the benefit of his estate. I appoint the said H.I. and KM. executors of this my will, and guardians of my children under age, and I bequeath to each of them for his trouble. How to Sight a "Will. When a man can ivrite, say,— Signed at the foot or end hereof by the testat-or A.E., on this first day of January, in the year 1574, at Makara, Wellington, New Zealand, in the sight and presence of us, who at his request, and in his sight and presence, and in the sight and presence of each other, have set and subscribed our names as witnesses. When a man cannot write, and somebody else signs for Mm. Signed by H. 1., of Karori, in "the sight and presence of, and by the direction of the said A.E., of Makara, the testator, as the last will and testament of t.'h.e said A.E., and such signature, acknowledged by the said A.E., in the sight and presence of us, who at his request, and in his sight and presence, and in the sight and presence of each other, have set and subscribed our names as witnesses.