RICH ORGAN-GRINDER.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19032, 9 June 1924, Page 10

RICH ORGAN-GRINDER.

AN AUCKLAND IDENTITY. LEAVES HOUSE, MONEY, AND OTHER PROPERTY, THIRTY-TWO BENEFICIARIES Fet< of those people who occasionally placed a coin in the box of Joseph Nezill, the old organ-grinder who w'as so well known about Auckland and suburbs, where he used to turn the handle of his old-fashioned instrument in an endeavour to produce music for the entertainment of the passing, public, ever guessed that he was other than the very poor man he looked, says the Star. Many a man and woman in the race crowds pouring into the gates at Ellerslie used to pause a moment to place a coin in the box at the top of the asthmatical organ, as the old chap s’tood stolidly outside the course, incessantly turning the handle of his machine. They missed him at Ellerslie on Tuesday. The organ-grinder had passed away. He died very suddenly at his residence, No. 2, Macauley Street, Newton, on May 11. He was at his usual avocation almost up to the minute of his death, for he had only returned from Ponsonby, where he had been turning away at the old organ, when he sat down, and then pitched forward, dead, Newzill was 75 yeads of age. The old organ-grinder was born in America, of foreign extraction. He went to Australia as a young man, and is reported to have made a lot of money on the goldfields of the West. This, it is said, he largely invested in America after his return there. He did not stay long in the States, however, for, after more wandering, he finally came to New Zealand, and settled down in Auckland. That was many years ago and he became a real identity, wandering with his organ all over the city and suburbs. The grown men and women of to-day knew him in their childhood and placed their pennies in his box, receiving his grave smile and courteous bow of thanks and the children of today will miss him, for they also liked him well. He was a sturdy, picturesque figure, quaintly clad, with his white-bearded face surmounted by a cap hung with various ornaments, and he used to shourder the organ and tramp from stand to stand in all but the wettest weather. Newzill was really fit for no heavier work since a very serious illness he passed through many years ago. On that occasion he was tended with much devotion by the lady who kept the house in which he had humble lodging, and by her children. When the lady gave up that place, Newzill purchased a fine cottage in Macauley Street, and installed her and her family there, himself taking one room for his own use He was very friendly with the husband of his nurse and attendant, and when the husband died, some six months ago, the old organ-grinder was very much affected. Newzill was a man to whom idleness was anthema, and when the weather was too bad to go forth with his organ,, he used to potter about the house, doing all sorts of little jobs to improve the property and in this manner he added very considerably to its value. When he died he left the place, absolntely unentailed, to the woman who had befriended him in the declining years of his life. In his will he directed that the remainder of his wealth should be equally divided among 32 named beneficiaries. "He remembered everybody who had ever been kind to him —even those who had given him a hot enp of tea when he was distressed by the eold,” said the old man’s friend. "I tell you. he was a white man, that, and he had had a lot of bad luck in his life.” Apart from the house, Newzill is said to have left six or seven hundred pounds in Auckland banks, and considerable property in America. What the value of the American property is will not be known until information has been obtained fdom the solicitors for the estate in the United States. It may be of very considerable value; On the other hand, it may not represent any great wealtl