AN AUCKLAND ROMANCE

Hokitika Guardian, 22 January 1929, Page 2

AN AUCKLAND ROMANCE

STRANGE STORY OF VISIT TO CLAIRVOYANT. AN INHERITANCE RECOVERED. AUCKLAND, January 18. A visit paid just /or a joke to a travelling clairvoyant who was then in Dominion Road will mean the recovery ol’ a fortune by an Auckland family. For years diligent search had been prosecuted for a- missing document, which would enable the family to inherit a valuable Australian property. 'Time and money had been spent freely but in vaiii. Then a member of the family visited the clairvoyant. He answered her question before it was asked. One short sentence from him was Worth many thousands of pounds, for the mystery of the dost inheritance was solved. . Nearly a hundred years have elapsed since the Williams inheritance passed from the hands of its owners, but its romantic history is preserved in documents now held by the senior member of the family, Mr J. K. Williams, 'of Dominion Road. Even with all available records carefully collated some aspects of the mystery are still inexplicable and are likely to remain so, but the main outline of the story is plain. The earliest record of the property is found in the diary of Thomas Kendall, the first New Zealand missionary. After his disastrous experiment in taking Hongi to England Mr Kendall settled in New South Wales on a Government grant, still known as Kendalldale. There his second daughter married a young surveyor named Florence, one of the earliest explorers to penetrate the hinterland of Australia. For her wedding present the New South Wales Government presented the bride with a square mile of land of her own choosing, and the young couple settled down on a fertile stretch about fifty hiiles from Sydney. At that time they were in the heart of the “ Never Never.” The first night in their new home was spent in bolding ofF a party of hostile aborigines. It was a grim foretaste of the future. For some years the Florences held their own against raiding blacks and fickle Nature, but in the end the husband, worn out by the- ceaseless struggle, collapsed and died. Left with a young family Mrs Florence decided to emigrate to New Zealand. She leased the land, conditions being that if it were not claimed by her eldest child at the age of twenty-one the lease would hold for a hundred years. In 1834, she quit Australia for her new home, taking with her the rental, which had been paid in advance. A few years after landing in New Zealand the eldest child died and the mother did not long survive. Her second daughter married Captain Williams, a well-known whaler on the coast. Mrs Williams has inherited her mother’s papers, and armed with these Captain Williams went to Sydney to ascertain liis wife’s position in regard to the estate. In the Sydney Lands Office he was informed that a deed essential to his claim was missing. It was not among the family papers, and the department denied any knowledge of it, so he perforce abandoned the inquiry. The present claimants are the children of Captain Williams. When Mr J. K. Williams inherited from his parents papers bearing on the property he decided that he would restore to his family their lost heritage. Sixty years passed but no clue to the missing deed was discovered. Lawyers on both sides of the Tasman charged heavy fees for failing to solve the mystery, and eventually other members 'of the family began to regard their heritage as merely a tradition and a very unprofitable one. To Mrs Williams must go the honour of first conceiving the idea that resulted in the solution of the mystery, but her scheme was executed by her daughter, Mrs C. Hodder, of Hamilton. About four years ago a well-known clairvoyant who was then visiting Auckland appeared at the Dominion Road Theatre, and a report of his powers, broadcast by neighbours, much impressed Mrs Williams. She decided to test his ability to solve the problem that had proved so baffling. Urged by her mother Mrs Hodder consented to undertake the forlorn hope. Of that eventful day she still speaks of that with awe. •« When I entered the clairvoyant’s consulting room,” she said, “he looked into my eyes and said, 1 You have come about some property.’ I nodded. ‘You wish to find an essential document which is missing. There has been some very underhand work done but the paper is now in the Lands Office in Sydney. If you write to them now you will get it.’ He said no more and 1 withdrew, doubting very much the value of liis information.” When Mrs Hodder reported the result of the interview her brothers and sisters were inclined to scoff. The Sydney office had been appealed to again and again, lawyers had searched its records, and its pigeon holes had been ransacked without any trace of the missing document being revealed. Eventually it was decided to take the clairovyant’s advice, but no one expected the sequel. By the return mail came impressively taped and sealed an envelope containing the missing deed. Where it had lain hidden all those years is a mystery not yet explained. With the new found deed to support their claim Mr Williams and his bro-

I flier went to Sydney and their ownership of the land was at once admitted by the New South Wales Government. They then visited their inheritance, where once their grand parents had held their little cabin against the besieging blacks. They found one of the most prosperous farming areas in Australia, watered by a creek that never dries. The soil has proved iinmensefy fertile and nearby there has sprung up the town of Orange, now an important railway junction. Naturally the families that have held the land so long are 4oath to move. The original square mile has been several times subdivided and the occupants, paying no rent and knowing lio landlord, have come to regard the property as their own. Among them Mr Williams found an old man who had been the immediate successor to the Florences, and lie exerted liis influence to' the uttermost in putting the owners’ case before the tenants. The property is estimated to he worth at least £(50,000, for under the terms of the lease the owners do not pay for improvements when the land reverts to them. 1 here arc still a number of legal lonnaiities to go through and these, states Mr AN illiams, will probably keep him busy Tor some time. The lease expires in 1934, but as five members ol the lamily have a joint claim on the property it will probably be renewed. In the meantime Mr Williams anticipates the usual flock of queries from non-existent relatives. “ I hat pait of the business will look after itself,’ says Mr Williams, “ but it seems to me that we have cleaved up one mystery and found two more. First, of course, is the problem of the lost deed. NNheie was it hidden for two generations? And, second, what occult power oi mental cunning dictated the clairvoyant’s answer? NVe have never seen him again, hut probably lie is still plying his trade overseas and finding lost fortunes in return for small lees.