OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 465, 10 June 1890, Page 3

OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

(FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

THE PEOPLE’S PKOPEBTT. Stdnbt, May 21. Some important will cases have occupied the attention of the courts and the public recently, and should have the effect of stimulating reflection as to the rights and duties of testators, whether in relation to the State or to their own family and dependants. The first was the will of Mr David Berry. In his lifetime Mr Berry was the owner of an enormous estate in the Shoalhaven district, granted at a time when, in the shallow judgment of the rulers of the day, land had no value at all. The Berry estate comprised a large slice of the colony of New South Wales. So vast was it that there is a standing joke told by way of a story to the following effect: Mr Berry had en gaged a party of men to get timber, posts and rails, slabs, and what not. Standing on the sea coast and fully instructed that his operations must be confined to the private property of his employer, the spokesman of the party asked him bow far they might go to get the timber required without trespassing on Crown lands, or on the property of other people. “ Anywhere, sir, anywhere," replied the uncrowned king of the country, "anywhere between here and sundown !” However, in the natural course of events Mr Berry left the earth, and left that considerable portion of it com prised in his estates also behind him. He was a very aged man, 93 according to one account, and 102 according to another, but all his life he had been a man of great discretion of conduct, combined with great originality and force of character. Vast as was the power which he wielded, no complaint of injustice, extortion or oppression was ever heard from his dominions. Considering that he held absolute power of eviction and distraint over a whole country side, inhabited by some thousands of people, this speaks volumes, and Land Rationalisers may well note the fact that Aader private ownership this enormous ffnitory was far better and more wisely administered than it possibly could have been by Government officials.

FIGHT OVEB A WILL. However, to the will. His estate was worth abont a million and a half of money, and he left it to a distant relative who during his lifetime had assisted him in its management. The will was contested by the nearest of kin on the grounds that the testator was not of sound mind. As a matter of fact the will was only executed a very short time before his death, and at a moment when he was so feeble from the effects of disease that he could not sign his name, being unable to hold the pen. The lawyers mustered in great force, so rich a corpus being a perfect bonanza to the men of horsehair. Quite a small army of witnesses were assembled, and they proved conclusively enough not only that the tsststor was in full possession of his intellectual faculties at the time of his death, but that the will which ha had executed was nearly a duplicate ci one which had been framed by hie instructions seme time previously. The Court found that the will was good, and what is more to the purpose, that there were no valid grounds for contesting it. Greatly to the surptise of the general public, who bad expected that the whole of the costa would come out of the estate, the objector was adjudged to pay nearly the whole of the costs at both parties. The other side, however, consented to forego their costs provided the defendant agreed to give them no more trouble. Mr Berry, I may mention, was unmarried, and there appears to have been little violation of natural right in his posthumous disposition of his property. It is a question, however, whether a man is entitled to disinherit his nearest of kin It is a question moreover whether in the care of the landed property which has grown into value with and on account of the growth of iho colony, the State ought not to receive a much larger shire of the unearned increment than is represented by the amount of the probate duty. That unearned increment belongs to the people of New Sooth Wales as honestly and as righteously as the improvements cattle *nd crops on the estate belong to the people who put them there. The one important internal function of the State is to administer even-handed justice. But it is impossible that this function can be healthily or efficiently performed as long as the rights of the people in this regard are persistently ignored.

abscbditivs or ths uw. The other case, that of Brown v. McEncroe, affords more scope for question in regard to the personal relations of the parties. Brown, • wealthy but aged man, married a young wife. It the evidence can be believed, she gave him considerable cause for suspicion. Borne witnesses declared that the old man was persuaded of her infidelity and made no secret to bis more intimate friends of his conviction. However, be tnok no steps to effect a separation during his lifetime, but after his death it was found that he bad left his widow only a small cottage at Bedfern and an annuity at the rate of £2 a week, the latter also being subject to certain very galling conditions. Mrs Brown’s innocence and her devotion in nursing her senile spouse through his many infirmities were strongly affirmed by witnesses on the other side. Unfortunately she could not be heard in her own behalf, as she died shortly after her husband, and the action was defended by her nearest of kin. The judge, however, decided in favor of the will, and, in delivering his judgment, laid down a principle which brings into strong prominence the great gulph that has opened out between modern law and practical justice. He is reported to have said: •’ When once the Court is satisfied

that a testator is of sound and disposing «ind it will not take into account any injusts or cruelty that may be apparent. Injus!s or cruelty is no ground for setting aside the will of a capable testator." How living testators of tyrannical or vindictive proclivities would rejoice to read this dictum from the teat of jus'ioe. The law forbids them to exercise injustice or cruelty during their lifetime, but they can gloat over the unrestrained revenge which they will perpetrate at their death. If Mr Brown, a man in the receipt of about £15,000 yearly, and living in an appropriate country residence, bad diet ated bis <rjle during his lifetime, and had sent hsr gway to the Bedfern cottage to live on £2 a week, the law eould have been successfully invoked on her behalf, It would have compelled him either to prove the truth of the suspicions which he entertained regarding her fidelity, or provide tor her in a manner suitable to the station to which be had raised S. Can anyone of sound reason affirm that obligation which rests upon every man to provide suitably for his owp dissolves into thio air aa soon as he site down to make his wfll, or tbat it is for the public good that the law should deliberately and in set terms cordone a breech of the law. Although the man is gone, and cannot be reached by legal process, the estate remains and can be reached, and can be made to discharge the obvious obligation which, as I said before, devolves upon every man to provide for his own. Sooner or later I look for a great reform in these matters. The spirit of the age is altogether in favor of the recognition of those actual rights and .duties which inhere in the possession of our common humanity, and it Is against the stupid technics lilies by which in the name of law they are so often nmlifled and eat aside, If the law h« a raison d'etre (and I believe it bee), it is as au apparatus for administering JusUm. Any portion of it that facilitates injustice ought to bo promptly amended or swept away.

AOCTDSFT *0 SIB HXSBT fABEBS. The unfortunate accident to Sir Henry Parkes is tho chief topic of interest in political circles. Friends and foes alike have vied with one another in expressions of sympathy and condolence, and the Oppo lrtt|on seem disposed to throw no obstacles Jn the way of the dispatch of business, jitill, parties are so evenly balanced that the Itbsenee of one man, especially when that map is Premier, and the moving spirit of the Government, must be severely felt, and may lead to all kinds of unforeseen complipations. Sir Henry waa thrown out of a pab owing to the horse bolting, and has f broken bjs leg just above the ankle. A young man, however vigorous or healthy, oouid not expect to get about again after a comminuted fracture of this kind, under frtr weeks, aid Wr Henry,

hale and strong, is a very old man. Still, his general health is so good that a speedy recovery is hoped for. The Government have wisely decided to go on with the debate on the ’Federation proposals in spite of the accident. They will be badly handicapped by the absence of their leader, especially as he is the father of Federation as at present understood. But it is obviously wiser to strike while the iron is hot, than ro allow public interest to die out, and then essay the almost ini possible task of reviving it. Whether they succeed or not in discharging this portion of the task they have gallantly taken up, it seems almost inevitable that. Sir Henry’s accident will pave the way for the downfall of the Ministry. COMMERCIAL MATTERS. Commercially trade remains very quiet. A large business is necessarily being done to supply the wants of over a million persons. But purchases are on a very limited scale, no one apparently, whether his purchases are on a wholesale or retail scale, caring to buy anything that he can do without. This, oi course, speaks well for the prospects of future recovery. Capital must be saved before it can be spent and that it is being saved our increasing bank deposits and export returns abundantly testify. But it makes matters very dull in the present. The “ waiting lime ” is proverbially the longest.