(Limited), who was at the time on a visit to New Zealand and Australia in connection with the business of the company.
Mr.Fiddlestick, Q.C., who with Mr.Pearl appeared for the applicants (and who was somewhat imperfectly heard), stated that the facts connected with the sinking of the Kangaroo would probably still be so fresh in his Lordship's mind that it would not be necessary for him to detail them, although he had them upon affidavit before him.

His Lordship would remember that but one boat-load of people had survived from this, perhaps the most terrible, shipwreck of the generation.

Among the drowned was Mr.Meeson; and this application was on behalf of the executors of his will for leave to presume his death.

The property which passed under the will was very large indeed; amounting in all, Mr.Fiddlestick understood, to about two millions sterling, which, perhaps, might incline his Lordship to proceed very carefully in allowing probate to issue.
The President: Well--the amount of the property has got nothing to do with the principles on which the Court acts with regard to the presumption of death, Mr.Fiddlestick.
Quite so, my Lord, and I think that in this case your Lordship will be satisfied that there is no reason why probate should not issue.

It is, humanly speaking, impossible that Mr.Meeson can have escaped the general destruction.
The President: Have you any affidavit from anybody who saw Mr.Meeson in the water?
No, my Lord; I have an affidavit from a sailor named Okers, the only man who was picked up in the water after the Kangaroo foundered, which states that he believes that he saw Mr.Meeson spring from the ship into the water, but the affidavit does not carry the matter further.