SURPRISE IN A WILL

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1070, 6 September 1930, Page 10

SURPRISE IN A WILL

SHAM FORTUNE REVEALED SHOCK FOR MANCHESTER I A Chinese art collection which was ! reputed to be ■worth over two million j pounds has been proved to he comparatively worthless. The collec- ! tion, which contained 6,000 “treasi urea.” belonged to the late Mr. John i Hilditch, of Manchester, who died |on March 4 this year, and whose 1 fortune, it was announced recently, i is only £7.055.

Mr. Hilditch claimed that his collection was worth a fabulous sum, and even declared that one of his beautiful shrines had come from sacred Chinese temples and represented Chinese life as early as 2000 B.C.

Tn A'ietoria Park, .Manchester, Mr. Hilditch regularly conducted services according to the ritual of Confucius, and amidst his hundreds of Chinese relics garbed himself in the cloak of a Chinese priest.

A fierce controversy raged between the Manchester Art Gallery Committee and Mr. Hilditch for many years. The local authority refused to exhibit his collection in the art gallery, and, as a result, Mr. Hilditch revoked him decision to hand over to the city a part of his collection valued at £25.000, and announced that he would divide the legacy between two authorities who had given him facilities to exhibit his collection. Mr. Hilditch was responsible for a famous hoax played on the city. A civic reception was given in 1913 to a party of “distinguished Chinese mandarins,” who turned out to be a party of students. Mr. Hilditch later confessed that he had organised the “hoax.”

There was considerable surprise in Manchester in June, when the amount left by Mr. Hilditch was made known. Mr. Morris Wise, solicitor to Mr. Hilditch, stated that the amount, left represented the whole of Mr. Hilditch's property, including the collection.