THE HUNTER ESTATE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 156, 20 July 1937, Page 5

THE HUNTER ESTATE

•Pres» AssoefaH oa.)

Counsel For Tmtees Addresses Court RIS HONOUR'S QUESTIONS

(By Telograph-

•WELLINGTON, This Dajfc With the final addresses of conncel, the Hunter Estate case, which eom» menced on Jnne 17, has entered on itt closing stage. Mr Justice Smith in the Wellington Supreme Conrt was occupied all day yesterday in bearing the address of Mr C. H. Weston, K.C., who, with Mr J. H. Dnnn, appears for the defendant trnstees, Cyril Paul Hunter, of Akitio, and Thomas Percy Hunter^ of Porangahau. •The case is an application hy Sif George Hunter 's widow, Edith May Hunter, Wellington, for the removal of the two trnstees on the ground of gross mismanagement of the estate, She is represented hy Mr J. D, Willis,~ with him Mr R. R. Scott. Mr Weston stressed th'e . complete confidence the late Sir George Hunter had in the two defendants, Ms nephews, to be the trustees of his estate. He mentioned also that Lady Hunter herself had shown confidence in them, even expressing her confidnece in letters she wrote. She had said: "I know Ihe nephews wonld nsver do anything wrong, if I told them what was right." His Honour: A peculiar kind of eoafidence, isn't itf Mr Weston also refejrred to the eenfidence. the late Sir Gedrge Hunter had in Mr Alexander Dnnn, and in Messrs Bethune and Hunter. The only charge against the trustees was that they had allowed Bethune and Hunter to charge excessive fees. There was no sllegation of mishandling of fuhds or of inefficiency. Indeed, the evidence had shown considerable ability on the part of that firm. Lady Hnnter had spoken of Mr Dnnn in no uncertain terms. She had referred jto him in the witpess box as "a scoundrel," yet she had, in her claim, made no allegation of dishohesty against him. * His Honour asked whether, in view of the hostility between the trusteea and the life tenant, it might not headvisable to have everything put on a proper husinesslike basis. so that feea would be paid for particular purposes and accounts rendered for those purpoees. Later he said that it seemed to him there had been a reai lack of co-ordination between the financial and the farming; hranches of the estate, Air Weston submitted ibhat the trus--tees'3 at all times, aeted prudently as reasonable men would do. His Honour eaid he wanted to know if the trustees ever met together and examined the "desperate" situation and then determined on a course Oft action. "I can't recollect any evidence,'' he said, "at which there wa a a definite inquii'y as to how the finances could he used to improve the farming side of the estate. After all that was at the root of the whole matter..'-' Air Weston submitted that with the trustees it was a question of economising, of saving every penny. His Honour : Where is there any evi» dence that they went into the whole matter? Where is any memoranda which would show that they did? i Mr Weston: We have never heen asked to produce any such. His Honour: My impression is that the management just pursued a leiaurely course. There was no grip dn the establishment. "My submission is,". said Mr Weston, "that if ever two trustees girded themselves up to face a crisis in an estate these two did on the death of Sir George Hunter.'' "You rather intrigue me with your expression 'girded up,' " said his Honour. "How did they do it? There were a lot of men on the farm, and from my view of the skins I don't thiiik they all wofked. Cowan him-self work- • ed hard, I have no doubt-5'