the duty statement. The will was prepared by an old friend of
the testator, Mr. G. W. Smith, and after the death of the testator
a family meeting was apparently held to hear it read, the widow
and all the testator's children being present. Its contents appar-
ently caused some surprise. Statements of the testator appear to
have been recalled at the time, by the widow and others, to the
effect that the testator really had no business apart from the slip,
that the slip should go to his son, who had built it, and that the
daughters should have £300 each. No one then questioned that
such statements had in fact been made by the testator. The defen-
dant said he could not continue the business on the terms of the
will: it meant working for five families beside his own - that is, for
his mother and his four sisters. He had no objection to working
for his mother, but he did not see why he should work for all the
others as well. It was therefore better, in his opinion, to sell the
whole business. The mother was strongly opposed to the sale,
and asked if the property were sold what would become of her -
she would, she said, lose her home. The daughters also desired
the continuance of the business for their mother's sake. As a result
of this discussion and " with the light derived from the subsequent
course of events," the family, as Buchanan J., who tried the case,
found, agreed to honour the intentions of the testator, as those
intentions had been verbally expressed, namely, that the business
should be carried on, that the mother should have the house and an
income of £3 per week out of the proceeds of the business, and that
the daughters should receive, as their shares of their father's estate,
£200 each out of the business as soon as it could stand the withdrawal