LEGAL INQUIRY COLUMN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 217, 12 September 1940, Page 23

LEGAL INQUIRY COLUMN.

- » (By BARBISTER-AT-LAW.) I Letters of Inquiry will be aniwered every week in this column. As lar as possible they will be dealt with in the order in which they are received and replies will be inserted with the least possible delay.] WORRIED. —Your age benefits have been reduced by 10/ each because your net income has been £1 In excess oi £52 per year. You must pay 1/ in the £ Social Security tax on your net income otrler than your age benefit. You a" aSoliable for National Security tax Of 1/ i in the £ on three-quarters of your net income. If the tax has been deducted from the allowance paid by your late employers you are not liable for nny further tax on it. J S —The party who wishes to have a fence I ' erected should serve notice specifying the type does e not object within twenty-one days to the notice he is deemed to have agreed to Jhe erection of the fence of the type specified. The mere rtarking Of ah article In a shop window with a price ticket is not an offer by the shopkeeper to sell the article at that price Even if the circumstances are such that the ticket constitutes an offer to sen, the shopkeeper may withdraw the offer before the customer accepts it. ANXIOUS.—On *n estate of £7000 the estate duty will be 12 per cent, and if the whole estate is left to your daughter succession duty will be 5 l-sth per cent. Estate duty is calculated on the total value of the estate irrespective of the person to whom it is left. Succession duty on any moneys left to strangers will be not less than 10 per cent, and if the amount is over £1060 It will be at least 17 oer cent. TENROC.—The form of the will is correct. If it was signed In the way in which the attestation discloses it was correctly signed. GRATEFUL.—There is no way in which you can retain the goods and yet be released of your obligation to pay for them. If you again interview the firm and explain your position it is possible that some allowance will be made to you if you return the goods. MRS. M— The mere fact that your husband In fits of temper tells you to go would hardly justify you in separating yourself from him permanently. If you and your husband agree to separate it would be reasonable for you to expect maintenance at not less than £2 per week, and 15/ per week for your child until she is Iβ. INQUIRER. —It is for the County Council to decide in What way rates are to be spent. The remedy of the ratepayers in your district, if they are dissatisfied, is to arrange for the formation of a special rating district for the purpose of carrying out work that you wish done. M.S. —The maintenance order remains In force despite the divorce. You may take steps to enforce payment of the arrears and maintenance to date, if you do not extract the decree absolute your husband may do so. NEXT OP KlN.—Then are several meanings to the words next of kin. Strictly they mean the nearest relatives by blood, and In this sense a wife is not the next of kin of her husband. More popularly the next of kin are considered to be those persons who share in the estate of a person dying without a will, and in ths case of a married man they are his wife -nd chile-en. JUSTICE.—If the will empowers the trustees to carry on the business of the deceased, or if the beneficiaries have agreed that the trustees shall do so, or If the Court has authorised the carrying on of the business the trustees may employ such persons and expend such moneys as are necessary for the purpose of effectively carrying on the business and preserving the assets used in the business. Unless authorised by the will or all the beneficiaries or the Court, the trustees should not expend moneys on additions to the dwelling house. You are entitled to a copy of the will and to a statement of account!. F.S.W.—If your wife's personal income Is In excess of £50 per year you are not entitled to the special exemption of £50 in respect of your wife. B,R.—The dwelling appareniry Goes not come under the provisions of the Pair Rents Act because it was first let as a dwelling without the adjoining land after the passing of the Act. You are not entitled to any reduction in the rent. Your remedy. If the property does not suit you, is to leave. If you are in arrear with your rent the landlord can get an order for possession. Your landlord is not obliged to find you another house. The fact that your wife is seriously 111 may result in the court giving you extra tint* within which to leave.