OLD LADY'S REMARKABLE STORY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1016, 7 March 1912, Page 4

OLD LADY'S REMARKABLE STORY.

A story presenting some extraordinary leatures was told in the Christchurch Supreme Court by the plaintiff in a civil action, a woman ot nearly seventy. It appeared that in 1889 she left her home owing to domestic iulelicity, and disappeared completely irom the ken oi her tamily. She was the owner ot a farm of 143 acres which was then valued at about ,£3O an acre, and is now valued at anything from ,£4O to ,£SO. She Jett New Zealand for Australia, and tor twenty years she maintained herself by her own industry, acting at various times as cook and washerwoman. She adopted an assumed name, and seemed to be content to let the yeais pass without making any claim on her property. It was not until 1907 tnat she wrote to one of her sons, letting him know that she was still in the laud of the living. Another remarkable feature o! her experience was that out of her none too large earnings she had contrived to pay 5s a week towards the purchase ol the cottage in which she was living in an ohscuie township. She had actually paid off ot the purchase money. The old lady was quite bright and cheerlul in the witness box, and did not appear to be impressed with the tact that she had done anything unusual.—Press.