A CURIOUS COINCIDENCE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 892, 11 August 1910, Page 4

A CURIOUS COINCIDENCE.

FAMILY MAINTENANCE'ACT. . By a curious coincidence, ; Sir Robert Stout, .who, in. 1897, introduced a Bill into the House to provide that if a man died leaving property, one-half must go to his wife and children, leaving him' free to dispose of only half as he pleased, was called on yesterday, as Chief Justice, to decide a unique point in this connection, under the existing law. In the case in question, which is. reported' in our Court news, the testator willed .£IOO each to each of two illegitimate children, and the remainder of his. estate to his widow. .The estate was worth £500, and there are four children of the marriage living. The /widow applied to the Court to vary the will in favour of her-, self and her children, so,as to give the whole of the money to them. The Chief Justice said that the case was the first .of its kind in New Zealand. He could not deprive the illegitimate children of their share. He had no power to provide for them, but ho could not : take away what their father had giveri them. ' The Testators' Family Maintenance.Act, 1000, •,provides' that ■ the Supreme Court may make such provision as it thinks fit out of a testator's estate for a'wife, husband, or-children, when these havo not been adequately considered.