AN IRISH ESTATE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19048, 27 June 1924, Page 10

AN IRISH ESTATE

SOLD TO THE TENANTS NEW ZEALANDER’S DEA Ta. HOW PROBLEM WAS MET. There has just returned to Dunedin Mr. Sidney A. Sheen, of Messrs John Reid and Sons, who left with Miss Sheen in June of last year for a trip to Britain. “Before leaving New Zealand I was requested by a solicitor in Auckland to undertake to look into an estate in the North of Ireland, that belonged to a client of his who resided in New Zealand,” said Mr. Sheen. “I went to Belfast, and from there to Kilrea, from which point I was driven to the estate of 400 or 500 acres. I had with me full power of attorney to deal with the property. I had either to sell it or to raise money on it, or leave it in the hands of some reliable person. I soon found that there was no chance of. finding a purchaser owing to the unfortunate state of Ireland at the time. I then endeavoured to raise a mortgage and tried numerous solicitors and banks in England and Ireland, but to no effect, for in consequence of the political situation and unemployment and the unsettled condition of Ireland the people there who owned anything like a considerable amount of money were sending it abroad for safety. 4 4 Being thus defeated in effecting a straight-out sale, or in raising a mortgage, I inquired about getting a reliable agent, and discovered that reliability would have to be purchased at an expense which the propefcy could not stand, so I decided as a last resource to call the 27 tenants together and ask them to discuss the proposition of each man buying his own farm.

“We had several stormy meetings, but at last we began to understand each other, and at 2 o’clock one morning, in the kitchen of one of the farmers, the property was sold in the presence of four solicitors, one of the conditions being that I was to be paid out in spot cash within one iponth. I went back at the time appointed when all the tenants came in and everything was settled to the satisfaction of all concerned.

“I feel rather proud of that deal, and the tenants must think they catie out of it alright, for when I gave them a dinner to celebrate the settlement, they drank my health and made me a presentation. ” The presentation consisted of a cigarette case and blackthorn stick.