HOARDED WEALTH

Hokitika Guardian, 24 July 1928, Page 4

HOARDED WEALTH

JAM TINS REPLACE BANKS,

POSTAL OFFICER’S £40,000.

SYDNEY, July 12,

Facts which are brought to light every now and gain show that there are still many people who prefer to hoard their wealth in all sorts of strange places rather than place it in the safe keeping of a bank. Their reason for forsaking ordinary commercial practices is difficult to fathom, and is evidently something known only to the mind of a. miser.

One of the most notable, as well as one of the most recent cases on record in Sydney, is that of Mrs Scales who conducted a fortune-telling saloon in the city for many years. During the bearing of n suit in'the Equity Court Mrs Scales declared that at one period of her married life she bad buried in jam tins in the backyard ot her suburban borne between £BOO and £I2OO. Airs Scales died recently and left more than £60,000..

Perhaps the. most remarkable case recorded in Sydney of boarded and secreted wealth was that of All* Alartiu Burke,, a one-time postal official, who, after his retirement, lived on povertystricken rations in a Sydney suburb. He died in the Prince Alfred Hospital, apparently a penurious derelict. Officers of the Public Trust Department’s investigations staff searched bis little back room in a modest residence, and in all sorts of queer places, found securities worth £40,000. Alany In ndreds of claims have been made in respect of this■fortune, but not one of them lias been established. The Public Trustee holds the money. Then there was the case of.an elderly woman who led an impoverished life at Glebe. Her neighbours took pity on her, and for years she was the recipient of food and clothing which they gave to her. When the officers of the Public Trust made a search of her dilapidated tenement, after she died, they found money in notes, gold, and silver, aggregating £3400, stowed away in jam tins, hoots, holes in the wall, and behind bricks in the hcartTi. 11l t money, too, still awaits a legal claimant. The indications are that it w.ll shortly pass to the Treasury, as the Public Trustee relinquishes its bold on the funds of intestate estates after sixyears. A more notable case was that of a man who lived for years at the Salvation Army Home in the oily. lie measured bis weekly expenditure to tho barest penny. Search after bis death disclosed securities and assets running into £20,000, and a will deciding the last farthing.

A working jeweller who made regular trips between Sydney and Buenos Air’s was regarded as a curiosity by bis intimates a few years ago. His penchant for travel was never thoroughly understood. One night, while having supp' 1 " at ii cafe in Sydney he collapsed. Search of his belongings revealed .ft false bottom in a Saratoga trunk, which contained about £3OO all in gold. That money also went into the coffers of the Stato.

A man who worked in tho city fur £2 10s a week and boasted that lie lived on 8s a week, died and leit assets worth £3500, for which no legitimate claimant has been found.