CRIPPLED BARON WHO WAS ALWAYS HAPPY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 241, 31 December 1927, Page 22

CRIPPLED BARON WHO WAS ALWAYS HAPPY

LEFT £300.000 FOR COLONY Though he was a cripple, Baron Henry Edward Ernest Victor Bliss, of Belize, British Honduras, Central America, formerly of Brandon Park, Suffolk, and Quarry Court. Marlow, Buckinghamshire, wrote in his will: "I have enjoyed my life; never experiencing an unhappy day, and I hope I die happy.” Baron Bliss, who died aged 57, left personal estate in England now valued at £330,497, and property in British Honduras valued at about £22,800. His father is said to have held the Portuguese title of Baron de Baxetto, and the testator to have changed it during the war to Baron Bliss, states the London “Daily Mail.” After various personal bequests he left the bulk of his property to be administered by trustees (including the Governor) for the benefit of the colony. the conditions being: “No subject of the United States of America shall be a trustee, or employed by them. “Any trustee or employee known to be even moderately intemperate, or who has the appearance of being so. or who is inefficient or shall accept commissions, shall be dismissed summarily. All materials used for any* of th? work of the trust shall be the produce or manufacture of the British Empire. Lighthouse to Overlook Grave lighthouse is to be erected as a | monument over his grave overlooking Belize Harbour. “The trust fund is not to be devoted to churches, chapels, dancing halls, education, or schools other than agricultural or vocational training.” It is understood that the total value of the bequest to the colony*, after tlie falling-in of various annuities, will not be less than £300,000. Dr. Thomas Gann, formerly chic*

medical officer of British Honduras, writes: “British Honduras produces mahogany*, rosewood, and all the valuable woods of the world, and bananas, coconuts, maize, and the citrus fruits—oranges, lemons, and grape fruit. But it lacks roads and other methods of transport. The late bar*® recognised this. He was an eccentric man, and. through an accident, cripple. His money might have go to the Bahamas. He used to fish rouu there. But they*, somehow, annoy him in that neighbourhood. J>o ® wrote to Belize asking if the was good, and when he came al ® to Belize the governor, attorn general, and the rest of us went to his yacht to welcome him. , became friendly*. His wife, a tau. a ■ * handsome woman, was very* popu*a--