WHEREAS Allan McLean, late of Christchurch, Gentleman, died on the twelfth day of November, nineteen hundred and seven, having first made his last will and testament, together with one codicil thereto, dated respectively the twentieth day of July, nineteen hundred and four, and the twenty-eighth day of November, nineteen hundred and six, which said will and codicil were duly proved in the Supreme Court of New Zealand at Christchurch on the twenty-first day of November, nineteen hundred and seven, by Henry Cotterill, Boulton Merlin Molineaux, and George Francis Gee, the executors under the said will and codicil named: And whereas the said will provides, inter alia, that the trustees thereof should hold the sum of ten thousand dollars upon trust to pay the income of the said sum of ten thousand dollars and of the investments thereof to the said Mary Alexandra Thomson therein described as Mary Alexandra Henderson during her life for her sole and separate use: And whereas the said will also provides, inter alia, that the Holly Lea property and furniture therein mentioned and the residue of the trust funds of the testator, subject to the provisions therein contained, should be held by the trustees of the will upon trust for the purpose of a public institution or benevolent asylum for destitute women, to be called The McLean Institute, and that the institution should be open—(a) As to the Holly Lea property and furniture only to gentlewomen or women of refinement or education in reduced or straitened circumstances and the children not being over the age of ten years of any such gentlewomen or women, the testator's special intention being that the Holly Lea property should be reserved exclusively for the use of gentlewomen or women (including their children as aforesaid) who either by their birth, education, previous life, or manner might be able to live in harmony under the same roof; (b) as to the rest of the institution not represented by the Holly Lea property and furniture to persons of the female sex not being under the age of eighteen years and to the children not being over the age of ten years of any such persons, but no person should be admitted to the institution but such as were poor and of good character and such as had been resident in the colony for a period of three years at least prior to the application for admission, and who were not and had not been in receipt of a pension under the Old-age Pensions Act 1898 [Repealed], or any statutory amendment thereof, at any time during the term of three years immediately before admission, or in receipt of aid from the Charitable Aid Board or other public institution having the control of the distribution of charitable aid at any time during the term of three years immediately before admission: And whereas the said will further provides, inter alia, that the Board to be constituted as therein directed should have absolute and uncontrolled power of admitting inmates to any part of the institution and of determining whether any applicant for admission comes within the qualifications prescribed for that part of the institution: And whereas, after reciting that it might be desirable to provide a separate establishment or separate establishments for women with children fulfilling the qualifications referred to in the foregoing paragraph (a) the said will further provides, inter alia, that, without prejudice to and in addition to any other powers thereby given by the trusts of the will, the Board might purchase in the names of the trustees, rent, erect, maintain, pull down, repair, improve, add to, or alter any buildings, colleges, houses, outhouses, fences, grounds, or enclosures which might be necessary or desirable for the purpose of providing any such separate establishments, and might also purchase any furniture, goods, chattels, and effects which might be required for the purpose of such separate establishments, and might generally conduct and carry on such establishments with the same powers in all respects as are thereby given to the Board with regard to the institution: And whereas by the McLean Institute Act 1909, the Board of Governors to the Institute which had been appointed as provided by the said will was thereby incorporated under the name of The McLean Institute as a body corporate with a perpetual succession and a common seal, and it was in the said Act provided that nothing therein contained should prejudice or affect the provisions of the said will and codicil or anything therein contained, except in so far as the same were expressly altered or modified by or were inconsistent with the said Act, the intention of the Act being that (except to such extent as therein provided) the said will and codicil should remain in full force and virtue: And whereas the said Mary Alexandra Thomson had special claims upon the bounty of the said Allan McLean: And whereas the said Mary Alexandra Thomson was previously married to William Joshua Heasley, who died on the fifth day of May, nineteen hundred and twenty-seven, and has since married the said Shirley Thomson: And whereas there are three children of such previous marriage — namely, Mary Faulkner Heasley, born on the nineteenth day of November, nineteen hundred and ten; Betty Faulkner Heasley, born on the twentieth day of April, nineteen hundred and thirteen; and Grey Faulkner Heasley, born on the second day of October, nineteen hundred and fourteen: And whereas pursuant to the powers vested in the said Board by the said will and the said the McLean Institute Act 1909, the Board has made provision for the benefit of the said Mary Alexandra Thomson and her family as hereinafter mentioned, that is to say—(i) In the year nineteen hundred and twenty-six purchased a residential property for the sum of four thousand dollars as a separate establishment of the institution to which the said Mary Alexandra Thomson and her children were admitted as inmates of the institution and purchased furniture and effects for the furnishing of such separate establishment; (ii) in the year nineteen hundred and twenty-six made a special loan to the said Mary Alexandra Thomson out of the income of the institution funds of the sum of three hundred and ninety-eight dollars ten cents; (iii) in the year nineteen hundred and twenty-eight lent to the said Mary Alexandra Thomson the sum of nine hundred and fifty-seven dollars forty-one and two-thirds cents upon the security of a policy of life assurance insuring the sum of eight hundred dollars and on the security of a mortgage over the interest of the said Mary Alexandra Thomson under the will of the said Allan McLean, with interest at the rate of five dollars per centum per annum; (iv) since the year nineteen hundred and twenty-six has made advances to the said Mary Alexandra Thomson in anticipation of income so that on the thirty-first day of May, nineteen hundred and thirty-four, the said Mary Alexandra Thomson will have received the aggregate sum of three hundred and fifty-one dollars fifteen cents in excess of the income earned by the said trust fund of ten thousand dollars; such sum of three hundred and fifty-one dollars fifteen cents having been paid out of the income of the institution funds: And whereas since the making of the said loan in nineteen hundred and twenty-eight the Board has paid premiums due in respect of the said policy of life assurance so mortgaged to the Board amounting to twenty-six dollars annually, and the amount of such premiums has been added to the amount of the indebtedness of the said Mary Alexandra Thomson: And whereas by deed dated the twentieth day of November, nineteen hundred and twenty-eight, the said Mary Alexandra Thomson assigned to the McLean Institute all that her life estate and interest in the said sum of ten thousand dollars under the will of the said Allan McLean upon trust that the Institute should in its absolute discretion, from time to time during the life of the said Mary Alexandra Thomson, pay or apply all moneys to be received by it by virtue of such assignment to or for the maintenance and personal support or benefit of all or any one or more of the following persons—namely, the said Mary Alexandra Thomson and her children or child, whether minors or adults, in such proportions and manner as the Institute shall in its absolute and uncontrolled discretion from time to time think proper; and it was thereby further declared that if the Institute should at any time thereafter make advances to or for the benefit of the said Mary Alexandra Thomson it should be lawful for the Institute to apply any moneys which it might receive by virtue of the said assignment in payment of premiums for keeping alive any policy or policies of insurance over which the said Mary Alexandra Thomson might give security and in repayment of all such advances with interest: And whereas since her remarriage the said Mary Alexandra Thomson with her husband and children has remained in occupation of the said separate establishment (being employed by the Board as caretaker therein): And whereas there is a doubt as to whether the trusts of the will empower the Board to confer all the benefits which have been conferred upon the said Mary Alexandra Thomson and her family, and it is expedient that the same should be validated: And whereas, owing to economic conditions, the income from the said sum of ten thousand dollars has lately suffered considerable reduction: And whereas it is expedient that the Board should have power to make provision out of the income of the institution funds for the maintenance, benefit, and advantage of the said Mary Alexandra Thomson and her said children:
The expressions “ten thousand dollars”
, “four thousand dollars”
, “three hundred and ninety-eight dollars ten cents”
, “nine hundred and fifty-seven dollars forty-one and two-thirds cents”
, “eight hundred dollars”
, “five dollars”
, “three hundred and fifty-one dollars fifteen cents”
and “twenty-six dollars”
were substituted, as from 10 July 1967, for the expressions “five thousand pounds”
, “two thousand pounds”
, “one hundred and ninety-nine pounds one shilling”
, “four hundred and seventy-eight pounds fourteen shillings and twopence”
, “four hundred pounds”
, “five pounds”
, “one hundred and seventy-five pounds eleven shillings and sixpence”
and “thirteen pounds”
pursuant to section 7(1) Decimal Currency Act 1964 (1964 No 27).