TWENTY MILLIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 777, 25 September 1929, Page 18

TWENTY MILLIONS

WELLINGTON MAN GOES AFTER HUGE FORTUNE ESTATES IN BRITAIN Press Association WELLINGTON, Tuesday. A claim to a fortune of £20,000,000 has been made by Mr. H. Spears, who has been in business in Wellington for the past 30 years. The fortune once belonged to an English family named Cox. In addition to the capital sum involved it is believed that the claim, if successful, will entitle Mr. Spears to large properties in the British Isles, including two castles. This huge sum of money lias been accumulating in chancery for many years owing to the disappearance of two brothers. After spending their youth in England they went to Australia and were never heard of again. The next heir to the fortune was unable to find sufficient proof to substantiate his claim. About 40 years ago the fortune wr.s contested in England by interested parties. Owing, however, to- the absence of certain important documents they were unsuccessful. These documents have since been discovered in Australia and other places, and Mr. Spears now hopes to be in a position successfully to claim the fortune. Mr. Spears bases his claim on the fact that, his mother was a Miss Elizabeth Cox. Her father, Colonel Cox, served in the Indian Mutiny, and would have been found to be in the direct line of descent if sufficient proof could have been brought forward concerning the matter. Although Mr. Spears believes that a Rev. Thomas Cox, as well as his mother, came to New Zealand in the early days, he thinks there are not many descendants of this Cox family in the Dominion today, and that there are only a few in England. In the meantime the matter has been placed in the hands cf a competent solicitor in Sydney.