ONLY £4,000,000.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 December 1920, Page 11 (Supplement)

ONLY £4,000,000.

A WELLINGTON ROMANCEMODEST CLAIM BY DESCENDANTS Og OLD SOLDIER. A few weeks ago a cable message informed us that Mr. William Gordon Low, a Scotsman, had discovered that a Crown land grant, given to his father for service in tiie Maori wars, and regarded then as of little value, had since been settled on, and formed pan of the city of Wellington. It was further stated that the value of the property was estimated to he 000, and that the descendants of the original grantee had advanced a claim for this sum. Her,-, for what it is worth, is the full story as published in "The Peoples' Journal of Fife and Kinross, of October 9. Romauce, with a dazzling fortune of four million pounds sterling at the end i of it, has come to Mr. William Gordon Low, a Scotsman, whose father was a native of Endinburgh. Mr. Low has just arrived in London to take the preliminary steps in regard to settling his claim, A close personal friend of Mr. Low related to me the whole of the amazing romance, the outcome of which has astonished the fortunate claimant as much as any of his friends. "The story has its beginning in the late sixties." said my informant. "Mr. Low's grandfather, Mr. William Gordon Low. loft Scotland, and, going to New Zealand, fought in the Maori wars there. In a sense he was a soldier of fortune/ inasmuch as he unconsciously laid the foundations of hufe wealth, which is now expected to benefit his descendants. ''After the fighting, Captain Low, as he then was, was given as a reward of his share a large tract of land. It was not his ambition to remain in NeW Zealand for the rest of his life, and after inspecting his gift he left it in disgust. It appeared to him to be nothing more than a huge swamp. It was a gift he could not take away, and it offered no temptation to him to try and cultivate it. and altogether he decided he had no use for it. SITE OF A CITY. "Accordingly, he left it, and, after his return to Scotland, dismissed the memory of his land gift from his mind. Now and again he would recall it as the topic of a humorous anecdote when relating to his friends the story of his experience in New Zealand. The thing he never failed to impress upon his hearers was the fact that his 'reward' was a valueless swamp, useless to tfian or beast. He had come to regara the incident as a joke! ■:■ "Captain Low eventually settled in pMidon, where he died in'lß72. From tfc&t time, and without his knowing it something in the'nature of a miracle was happening in far-Oi'F New Zealand, line value!'?;? swamp tint became ab- ; «-rbed in tl ° site «f a rapidly growing j little township, and the land he had ; declared 'useless to either roan or beast' began to assume a new and j unexpected importance. J 'With the passing of years, the tract of land lie had neglected became the ■ site on which the flourishing and highi !«• important town of Wellington now I stands. "The next step wa9 not taken until quite recently, when Captain Low's son, the father of the present claimant, Mr. Gordon W'illiam Low, decided to take a long shot and send out somebody to •look into matters.' All the necessary papers were supplied to the 'explorer* to enable him to locate -his tract, but so emphatic had been its recipient on its utter worthlessness that small hopes were entertained that it might have improved and become worth taking up as a piece of private property. A STRAIGHTFORWARD CLAIM. "A shock was awaiting the explorer after his arrival. The plans and particulars supplied to him led him straight to the town of Wellington, To make sure he had not made a big mistake, the inquirer traced the local history of the town back to the period of the 'sixties. Slowly but surely he amassed all the information he needed, and then cabled the news of his great discovery to Mr. Low in London. "It was decided to take no steps in the matter until the return of the 'explorer,' so that all the information he had gleaned could be studied. "His arrival in London was a great occasion for the family. You see, it does not happen every day for somebody to arrive with incontestable proof that you are the inheritor of a fortune worth at least four million pounds! "The proofs and particulars then placed before Mr. Low put the matter beyond any further doubt and provided a straightforward claim. Instead 6f the land being a swamp, as some members of the family persisted in believing right to the last, it has become transformed into colossal fortune. "Proofs of the claim are ao clear that it is not anticipated that there will be any.insurmounable difficulty in getting the New Zealand Government to accept it The claim is now being prepared for submission to the Commissioner for New Zealand in London, and little doubt is held that the claim will not be contested." "Once the whole cirenmstances connected with the land and its ownership have been fully dealt with the difficulties in the way of its transfer from the State of New Zealand to the descendant of Capain William Gordon Low will melt away," the claimant said. "It is a curious thing," he added, "but I have always had a feeling that a fortune was coming to me from somewhere or other. I had no especial reason for supposing this, but the feeling has been there that one day I should be rich. It was a great shock in its way when I learnt for the first time that the old swamp out in New Zealand was going to represent this fortune. "Of course, four million pounds is rather a lot of money, but I shall not let it make any difference to me in my profession as musical director of revue companies—l love it too well. When I get the money I am going to use it in getting theatres, and I am already in negotiation for one. "My pet ambition for a long time has been to buy several theatres, and now there seems to be some prospect of my being able to do something in this direction before long. The acquisition of this fortune will not make any difference to my wife either. We are naturally very pleased, but we are both going to stick to the business." Tn a later interview Mr. Low states that he had been in communication with the New Zealand authorities, and was now preparing to embark for that country :to enter preliminary nwjtWJctw jpgardinjf his oUip " t