DEAD MAN DENOUNCED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 815, 8 November 1929, Page 9

DEAD MAN DENOUNCED

AFRICAN MILLIONAIRE’S WILL ATTACK BY NEWSPAPER (United P.A.—By Telegraph-Copyright) CAPETOWN, Thursday. The will of Sir Joseph Benjamin Robinson, a pioneer of the Rand goldfields, who died on October 29, has been published. His estate is believed to be worth £12,000,000, and not a penny is left to any public purpose. The principal beneficiaries are his daughter Ida, Countess Labia, who inherits one-third of the estate, as well as the reversionary interests; secondly, his son, the new baronet, Sir Joseph Robinson, who receives two-thirds of one-third of the estate; and thirdly, his daughter 'Florence, who receives one-tird of one-third of the estate. His widow, Lady Robinson, receives a life interest in one-third of the estate. By the will £I,OOO Is given to a daughter who lives in England, and £SOO each to the children of his son Wilfred, who died in Australia in 1922. “And no further amount of capital shall accrue to them, either directly or indirectly,” according to the will. The “Cape Times,” commenting on the will, declares that it offends against ordinary human decency in two ways. First, it throws contemptuous legacies at the heads ,of one surviving daughter and two of his grandchildren. -“No warning of the depth of contempt which these vindictively minute legacies to his own flesh and blood would bring upon his own memory seems to have visited this old man,” says the newspaper. “STINKS TO HEAVEN” “His eyes were shut in his lifetime, and after his death his will speaks out the almost Incredible evil of his nature. That is one way in which his will stinks to Heaven. It stinks, too, against public decency. Robinson owed the whole of his immense fortune to the chances of life in South Africa, and he has not left a penny of all hl§ millions to any public purpose. “Such a will carries a dreadful penalty by branding the name of the man who made it with infamy so conspicuous as to transcend the highest pinnacle of indignant scorn. “Those who in future may acquire great wealth in South Africa will shudder lest their memory should come within possible risk of rivalling the loathly thing that, is the memory of Sir Joseph Robinson.”