THE PAGE MILLIONS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9120, 20 June 1908, Page 5

THE PAGE MILLIONS.

AUSTRALIAN CLAIMS,

A FRUITLESS MISSION,

Received June 19, 11.52 p.m. SYDNEY, June 19

. At a meeting, to-day, of the shareholders of the Page-Morris Company, formed for the purpose of pushing the interests of the Australian claimants in the Page estate, Mr Jobson, who was sent to England to make inquiries, detailed the fruits of his mission. He said that he found Mr Page did not die intestate. Even if he had died it.testate the Statute of Limitation would have barred the Compmy's claim. Counsel advised Mr Jobson that further prosecution o.* the claim would be useless, and u lprofitsbl? and a waste of the Company's assets. The meeting decided to ask the shareholders to consent to the voluntary winding-up of the Company.

The Page Estate, valued at from 50 to 100 millions sterling, dates back to the days of Henry VIII. About 1535 the King suppressed the monasteries in England, and Page (a commoner) was given Kilburn Priory; of which he took possession on ihe expulsion of the nuns. This was the foundation of the wonderful Page fortune. The family gradually accumulated a vast estate, including a large portion of the West End of London and Harrow, besides other property. The last direct heir died in 1829. and the estate has since oeen held by trustees. A syndicate was recently formed in Sydney to promote the claim of an Englishman named Morris, resident in that city, who is not in affluent circumstances, but whose claim was said to be support, d to some extent by legal opinion. In March, 1907, it was announced that the Crown was instituting proceedings to test the validity of the title to the estate. The property in dispute, it was explained, comprised sixty square miles of country, covering one-third of the Midd e.sex suburbs of London, and part of Hertfordshire. The estate is worth £2,000,000 a year, and was being claimed for the Crown by the Attorney-General, on the ground that the title had been defective for 80 years. A Select Parliamentary Committee was appointed to make inquiries into the Crown claim. In October last a claim to the Page millions was made by Mr George Norton Morris, of New South Wales, who went to England for the purpose of asserting his right to the property, by the fact that Mr Arthur Frederick Page, a resident of Carlton, claimed to be a lineal descendant of Mr Henry Page, last direct heir and possessor of the estate, who died in 1829. Mr Page, who was bom on August 6th, 185], at Banner square, London, stated that he was confident that he could make out a good title to the property. A company was formed in Sydney to prosecute Mr Morris' claim. The capital of the company was £IO,OOO, divided into 5,000 £1 s-hares subscribed by the public, an) 5,000 fully-paid-up shares which wtnt to the vendor and claimant, Mr Morris who alleged himself to be the grandson of a brother of Henry Page, the last holder ot the estate. In addition to the 5,000 shares, Mr Morris was to receive £250 in cash, and be handed several return tickets to London for himself and family, and be paid £ls per week for six months after arrival there. Those who subscribed the necessary £5,000 were to receive 50 per cent, of the net money received from the estate should the claim be upheld, up to the first, £1,000,000, 25 per cent, of the proceeds from *1,000,0n0 to £5,000,000, and ao on.