EXPLORER’S WIDOW.

Waikato Times, Volume 114, Issue 19054, 19 September 1933, Page 9

EXPLORER’S WIDOW.

LIFE ON £2 A WEEK. LATE COMMANDER CAREY. ESTATE OF £BOOO. (From a Correspondent.) LONDON, August 6. In a beautiful glade of the New Forest, near Emery Down, the widow of a distinquished explorer is 'building an encampment so that she can live more easily on £2 a week that has been left to her and her two children. , . , She is Mrs Carey, whose husband. Captain W. M. Carey, commander of the Royal research ship Discovery 11., lost his life on the eve of his ship s return to England on May 2. He is presumed to have walked out of his cabin In the early morning after having been relieved of his command through ill-health and to have fallen overboard. . , He had 'been on two Antarctic vovages of research for the Discovery committee, and Mrs Carey is convinced that it could only have ‘been the terrible physical rigours and mental strain entailed by those trips that brought about his death at the age ° f To*'her he left “everything of which he died possessed,” yet not a penny piece of Ws £8292 gross estate is likely to come to her for some years. . Children’s Sympathy.

' As we talked to-day Mrs Carey’s 17-year-old son Michael, who has almost passed his course as a naval oadet at Dartmouth, and a friend were rigging up the first of the tents. Her daughter, Cordelia, aged 12, was with us, interjecting comments that showed how keenly and intelligently she follows the difficulties of her mother’s life. "People that have read that Captain Carey left £8292 naturally think I am well provided for,” said Mrs Carey, "yet although I cannot touch a penny 'of the money I have got to find £2OO to pay death duties on the estate; Of the total, £2OOO is represented by a house on which is a mortgage of £IBOO. “The rest of the estate is a trust fund in which my husband’s mother has a life interest. She has explained to me that she is not in a position to help me. • “All I have left is my Admiralty pension of £7O a year, and as a special grant the Colonial Office, through the Discovery Committee, have paid me £9OO, equivalent to a year’s salary of my late husband. "Of the £9OO £250 has to be set aside to create a fund for my son, whose education until he can keep himself has 'Been provided for, and the remaining £650 has been sunk to provide an annuity for me of £3B a year. I have altogether £IOB a year. "My daughter's education has also been provided for. "I really do not know how I snail carry oil after the end of this month, when the £SO grant made to me by the fund created to help necessitous widows is exhausted. "I have come here because we are used to camping. My husband and I camped year after year in this very spot. It is so much cheaper to live, and when I have got it going I hope we shall have some of my friends visiting as paying guests. “It is no good now going back to his death, for that is a mystery which will never be explained. Suffice It to say, the Discovery Committee has found no other man to do the job he did at such a price to himself and his family. It is on this footing that I have asked for special consideration. Work for Science. "His work enabled people not merely to make scientific advances, tout it has been of . practical and monetary advantage to such places as the Falkland Islands, which live by the whaling industry. “I have even written to the whaling companies for help, but they refused to consider any responsibility in the matter. "I begin to feel that there is no one who can do anything to help me, and If my plan to live here does not prove a success I really do not know what I shall do. “At the best it is a hand-to-mouth existence. The only comfort I have is the affection of my children.” Already the camp has begun to take shape. The little kitchen had been set up and arranged .with all Us orockery and utensils. A tent to serve as a dining-room in wet weather and other tents for sleeping in were ready to be erected. "While the weather lasts it will be very nice, tout I shudder at the thought of what may happen in the winter," 'she said.