HUNTER ESTATE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 April 1938, Page 7

HUNTER ESTATE

FURTHER PROCEEDINGS APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT. SOME PARTICULARS OF ASSETS. WELLINGTON, April !). Management of the estate of the late Sir George Hunter became the subject of legal argument again yesterday when the Court of Appeal began to hear an appeal from the judgment or Mr Justice Smith which changed the trustees of the estate.

As a result of a hearing in the Supreme Court, which lasted from June 17 to August 3, and in which a great deal of argument and evidence were put forward on the management of the farm at Porangahau that is the chief asset of the estate, Mr Justice Smith directed the removal of Cyril Paul Hunter, Akitio, and Thomas Percy Hunter. Porangahau, from the positions of trustees and the former from the office of executor of Sir George Hunter’s will. The New Zealand Insurance Company, Ltd., was appointed trustee and executor. Plaintiff in that case was Sir George Hunter’s widow.

The Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers), Mr Justice Blair, Mr Justice Kennedy, Mr Justice Callan, and Mr Justice Northcroft were on the bench yesterday.

Mr Weston, in opening, reviewed the history of the trusteeship until recently held by the Hunter brothers. He said the estate at the time of Sir George Hunter’s death contained as assets the Porangahau farm of 7891 acres and the stock on it, the Old Customhouse Street building, Wellington, built in 1840 and leased to Bethune and Hunter and others, the residence in Dixon Street, which was subject to two mortgages amounting to £ll,050, mortgages valued at £10,729, shares and debentures valued at £4263, and a credit balance with Bethune and Hunter of £4339. Liabilities were: Death duties of £29,573, the mortgages of £11,050, debts to creditors (£5000), guarantees (£3500), legacies (£6600 a year), and annuities (£6OO a year).