Page 4107 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 October 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
there will be at least one man to regret my death". There have been other amusing wills, and those of us in practice can never get over the types of will we are asked to draw. I am not saying, because I do not want to get into trouble with the Law Society, what I have put into wills.
One of the most reliable indicators sometimes is when a sister is reading a will to a beneficiary and, in effect, the beneficiary has left the money to X and all of his books and writings, worthless and trivial though they be, to Y, who has really been the ultimate friend, a good friend. That is the will we call, "He left his money to Royal Canberra Hospital and his brains to you". Sometimes you see great disappointment on a face when they realise that they have been left only a memory and not some money.
There have been other interesting wills. One of the more interesting wills that has been dug up is a will made in New South Wales which contained the following provision:
I also direct that my executors pay to my husband 10 shillings on the morning of my funeral and that the funeral cortege shall halt outside any hotel to be selected by my executors en route to the cemetery while my husband expends the said 10 shillings buying drinks for his companions - leaving me for dead outside just as he did so often during my lifetime.
I could go on. I do not wish to trivialise the debate at all, but there is another classic will that was proven in Philadelphia in 1913. It was a will made by Maggie Nothe and it got mixed up in the kitchen with other things she was doing. Under the heading "Chili Sauce Without Working" the following appears:
4 quarts of ripe tomatoes, 4 small onions, 4 green peppers ... 2 ounces cloves ... Chop tomatoes, onions and peppers fine, add the rest mixed together and bottle cold. Measure tomatoes when peeled. In case I die before my husband I leave everything to him.
MR STEFANIAK (10.34): I cannot really match that. Given Mr Connolly's earlier comments and that tomorrow is World Koala Day, or Koala Awareness Day, all I can think of is perhaps putting up an MPI that we bulldoze some national forest which is their habitat, if that will keep you happy. In reply to the comments by Mr Collaery and Mr Connolly in relation to my proposed amendments, I want to say that basically they do not know what they are talking about and they should get out in the real world.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .