A LOST HEIR AND IMPERSONATION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9711, 5 February 1910, Page 5

A LOST HEIR AND IMPERSONATION.

AN BXTRAORDINAKY CASE. By Telegraph—tress Association. WELLINGTON, January 4. An extraordinary case of a lost heir and impersonation came before the Supreme Court in banco to-day on the petition of the Public Trustee for directions as to the disposal of £9OO held by him on behalf of George Tuckweil, due under the will of Richard Tuckweil, who died in 1882. George, his eldest son, had gone to Australia two years before, and has not been heard of since 1883, In 1893 a letter purporting to be from him reached a Wellington solicitor, who accordingly executed a deed of conveyance and paid over a sum of money due to George Tuckweil. It is now qute clear that Tuckweil was impersonated, and the money obtained by fraud. Tuckwell's relative* in New Zealand and Australia had long concluded that he was dead, but inquiries were being continually made about his share in the estate by one Robert Gillespie, who claimed to know him in Cobar, and who said he bad a power of attorney from him to collect the legacy. Then \in 1901 a letter signed George Tuckweil, but which Gillespie afterwards admitted to ha\e written, though at Tuckwell's dictation, claimed the legacy. The relatives by this time were thoroughly suspicious, and' the police and other inquiries were made, utterly failing to reveal the whereabouts of Tuckwell, who seems to have died and been buried under an assumed name, as no record of registration of death can be found. The petition has been before the Court for five years. Today Mr Justice Cooper allowed the irusteeto presume that Tuckweil had died interstate and unnvairied, without issue, and ordered him to pay it to the next of kin, should there be no claim on nehalf of George Tuckweil during the next six i months _^______