WISHES TO DIE POOR

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 923, 17 March 1930, Page 10

WISHES TO DIE POOR

RICH MAN’S MANY GIFTS TO CHARITY That lie will voluntarily relinquish the wealth he accumulated during a long and successful business career is the determination of Mr. Halley Stewart, of Harpenden, says the “Sunday Times-” “I have worked hard during my life, and attained great riches,” Mr. Stew> art told a reporter, “but I am no longer rich, and I intend to dispose of more of my remaining possessions before 1 die.” Mr. Halley Stewart, who Is 91, was one of the 14 children of a Nonconformist minister at Barnet. He started work at £3O a year in a bank in Shoreditch, and later amassed two fortunes, one in 1 a seed-crushing undertaking and the other in the cement, industry. He has made many generous gifts for charitable, religious, and educational purposes, and has now offered to bequeath his large house, with seven acres of land, as a hospital tor Harpenden, and promised £I,OOO toward its equipment and endowment, if the trustees raise the remaining £3,000 that, will be required. Mr. Stewart has been a great worker for the Congregational Church. He is chairman of the Halley Stewart Trust, which he founded with £200,000 to apply the Christian Ideal in social life, and he has made more substantial donations to the Congregational and Baptist Churches and to the Church of England. Mr. Stewart’s offer of his house as a hospital is subject to the condition that he retains possession of it for the rest of his life.