A FORTUNE

Hokitika Guardian, 25 August 1932, Page 6

A FORTUNE

A LUCKY COUPLE.

NEWS OF INHERITANCE.

AUCKLAND, August 24. When the Zealandia sailed from

Auckland on Friday' she carried Mr Pat Ccenette and his wife, who had come from Wanganui to spend a holiday in , Auckland prior to leaving for England, to claim what, in these difficult might be called a fortune. Their story concerns a will, the terms of which allowed but two years to find the heir, ancF the glad surprise of a wife who, through the medium of a newspaper file in a public library, discovered an advertisement just in time to establish her husband’s claim. Mr Pat Cosnette,' who is of Irish extraction, it about forty-five years of age. Hi early years were spent in New York. Abour twenty-five years ago he was a membeif of the crew of the Republic which passed through the Bay of Naples when Vesuvius was in eruption, and at that time the crew did ,not know that an awful earthquake had buried tens of thousands of peopD Throughout the war Mr Cosnette. was attached to troopship®, and'- in . 1920 joined the Surprise, a yacht on which Mr Godfrey Williams, the Welsh “o. al king”, made a world trip ;f scientific exploration. After two years with the Surprise he came out to New Zealand aboard the Waimana', where he met with many ups and downs, finally joining the oil industry, and later be’.ng appointed branch manager of the. Vacuum Oil Company at Wanganui. The object of‘the,present jonrnpv'ta England is told by Mrs Cosnette. “I first met Pat aboard the Waimana, on which ship I was coming-out to the Dominion to try my luck,” she said. “Scon after arrival we got married. A few months ago, when visiting the library, I was surprised to see in a newspaper an advertisement seeking the whereabouts of by hust/and. Nerdlpss to say, I replied to it, and b und that some English solicitors ivere -°3 i - ing Pat in order to pas® r-n to him an inheritance. My'husband wrote Home, and upon the information, which established bis family connect 5 m. much more than sufficient monev was cabled to us to go to England. If the v-stare had not been claimed within a ferv. month;? it would have gone to another member of the family Tie estate is worth about, £2OOO a year, and is eo u a,ll divided betw en, Mr Pat Cosnette and bis. brother, who wa® wrongly renorted as 1-rilUl in the war. but who has been enjoying bis share cf the fortune, while that of my'husband has beep accumulating.”

In reply to a question as to whether the fortunatd couple wo lid-return to New Zealand, both 'Mr and ii's wife said- they -!vk«;-d th- Dmijiiion, .fthd.iyould" ih all probaliiMv .settle lij Auckland.