AUSTRALIA'S BIGGEST ESTATE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 314, 30 May 1911, Page 3

AUSTRALIA'S BIGGEST ESTATE

ROMANCE OF A QUEENSLAND MILLIONAIRE. The final proceedings connected with | the estate of the Queensland stock-own-ing millionaire, the late Mr. James Ty-' son, familiarly called "Jimmy Tyson," have now been concluded. Tyson was economical to a fault, as well as wealthy, and many are the yarns told of him in bush townships of Queensland. It was generally supposed when the bachelor millionaire died that he had left a will, but a careful search failed to discover it. This caused general surprise, as in every other respect the successful pastoralist was a far-seeing man. The only evidence available that he had ever contemplated putting his wishes in that respect in documentary form was a portion of a draft will written in pencil in his own handwriting on a sheet of note paper. But it only provided for legacies amounting to £30,000, and it •was not signed. As the estate was calculated to lie worth £2,272,804, it will be teen that had the document been signed it would have been most incomplete.

This groat estate, the biggest mass of Ci wealth aggregated by one man up to that time in Australia, was divided be- | tween three estates, and was thus apportioned:—Queensland £1,260.804; New . South Wales, .£441,484; Victoria, £561,000. At the (late of his death a bookmuster of the live stock on his stations in the three States gave .300,739 sheep, 03,238 cattle, and 241)3 horses, and at that time there was a very dry spell prevailing in parts, and many of the stations belonging to Tyson were affected. At the time the Queensland Government were in need of money, and it was agreed to accept, £125,000 by way of death duty, but it was afterwards shown that this sum was excessive, and the Court ordered a payment of £BO,000. Subsequently a claim was made for excess of duty charged, and the Government was ordered to refund nearly £IO,OOO.

It is calculated that the legal costs in this estate, at length completely wound up, amounted to 2.7 per cent, of the amount distributed amongst the kith and kin. It is also computed that at the close of the Queensland administration the total amount distributed amongst the relatives in cash and negotiable stock exceeded .111.2(10,804, as against the original estimates.