MISER BROTHERS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4718, 30 June 1924, Page 2

MISER BROTHERS.

A LOAF OF BREAD A YVEEK. How two elderly men died in miserable circumstances associated with extreme poverty although they were in posse’ssion of considerable means was referred to in the Probate Court (states the “Daily Mail”) when Mi Justice Hill granted an application to appoint a receiver in the estate of William and Thomas Brissenden, of New Street, Westminster, B.W. Last December, William Brissenden died as the result of having his first bath for 40 years, which was ordered by the sanitary authorities. Thomas died two months ago at the age of 60 from the results of starvation. Tt was stated by a doctor at the. time that he had probably had no food for a week. At the time he had some £6O in his possession.

The two brothers who lived and died in this wretched manner occupied their own house, a neat little lirick building of four stories, and they are believed to have had other houses in the neighbourhood. It appears that despite the money they had at their disposal the two brothers reduced their expenditure to the minimum.

• A local baker used to deliver a. loaf of bread a week. It is not known what other eatables the brothers had. It is said that; one of them went out picking up cabbage leaves ‘in the neighbouring street