A FORTUNE OF £3,000,000.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1544, 13 September 1912, Page 4

A FORTUNE OF £3,000,000.

"TOO MUCH TROUBLE TO BOTHEBj ABOUT." IBy Tclceraph.—FroM Ae«oclatto»j Auckland, September 12. A fortune bf tlireo million pounds, which should have been claimed years ngo by nn Auckland resident, Richard John Walters, now deceased, is going begging. The story of tho fortune and us former possessors is a most complic*if n one ' ''"t "° doubf; the authorities will find the right clnimnut to tlio huge property in due course. The estate now lies in the English Chancery Court, and by the end of 1911 had accumulated to pv«r ■£3,000,000. It lies tihcrc in the name bt Walters, an Exeter family,'whoso heir "as been advertised for in the British papers without avail. Richard John Walters, 72 years of nge, formerly belonged to the English Army. Ho came to ?o * ea ' ft "d many years ago, nud finally settled with Mr. T. W. Mayson, of Point Chevalier, Auckland, and worked for him as gardener. As ho grow older, Walters became very eccentric in his habits, and m December last vear ho died of excessive drinking. Ho was in receipt of an old ago pension from the New Zealand liovernmenr, but so far as is known ho was possessed of no other means. Little (lid his benefactors think .that they were helping ono who might have been tho richest man in New Zealand, and ono who could have claimed some, of the richest properties in tho English provinces. Walters, it is said, made, a confidant of Mr. Mayson, his employer, but apparently ins statements wero not taken much notice of until during the last fow months of tho old man's lifo he often said to Mr. Mayson: "It's too much trouble to bother about. I am content with my pension, and I am an old man." Walters, it is said, had certain documents in his possession which, if ho had cared to send to the right quarters through a reliable source, would have mode him possessor of this huge fortune. Since it became known tihat tho old man woe the Teal hoir to tho estate, Mr. Mayson has been inundated with letters from persons in nil parts of the world, who claim to be relatives of tho deceased.