A SORDID LIFE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 336, 11 March 1910, Page 6

A SORDID LIFE.

OF A MISER. FRUGAL DIET AND HUMBLE . RAIMENT. A cable message published in New •Zealand papers last week stated that Charles Phillips, an upholsterer, had died in London after living for many years at a cost of six shillings per week, and that he had left £3OOO in cash, to which amount his relatives thought should be .idued colonial property valued at £7OOO more. A correspondent who knew Phillips .well, writes to the Dttnedin Star: This man lived and worked for many jears in Dunedin at his trade. He was employed at one of the principal furniture warehouses here, his earnings amounting to about £3 12s a week. He existed upon the odd shillings, saving the sovereigns to provide for a rainy day. He lived as a bachelor in a room off Maclaggnii street, somewhere about where Pavletch's Hotel was. Rents we r e cheap in those days, and his foo/1 did not cost much. He went to his -work in the morning without breakfast, anrl wo-iU send out one of his boys for a pennvworih of broken biscuits, and wilh milk tor another coin would make a frugal me:i.l. A suit of clothes would last for some years, as he had an old ' cardigan jacket to keep out the cold.

He always looked vevv miserable, through tin: craze for money growing oil him. About the year ISSO he started back for his old haunts in London, and evidently had lived in the same wretched style ever sines. TTis ase at death would be nearly 80 vesrs. I do not think he left any property in "Nev, Zealand—he was too fond of hoarding cash.