CREDITORS' MEETING.

Bush Advocate, Volume I, Issue 69, 13 October 1888, Page 2

CREDITORS' MEETING.

» A meeting of the creditors of Carl Johann Fredericksen, of Norsewood, bushmap, was held at the Town Hall, Danevirke, yesterday, the Deputy Official Assignee, Mr J. F. Jardine, presiding. The liabilities were given as .£332 18s lld and the assets .£6B, of which the following are particulars :— Liabilities— -F. Lundqvist, Marton, £9 10s: W Robinson, Makotuku, ' £140 j J. Jones, Eketahuna, £50:, J, ! Pettersen, Norsewood, £6 ; J. Selbyj '. Eketahuna, £18 j Holland, Eketar huna,^4 j J. Younghusband, Napier, [ £6 ; W. Small, Norsewood, £9 7s 5d i j Burling, -Eketahuna, £40 j W. Price, i Norsewood, £4 ; H. Clark, Woodvillej } £1 lis; J. Munro,- Norsewood, 9s }0. Olsen, Norsewood, £1 12s 6d \ 0, \ Ericksen, Norsewood, £1 4s ; A. Birnie, Pahiatua, £3 ; Z. Frederick- | sen, Norsewood, £3 ; J. Fredericksen, J £5 ; Gustav Fredericksen, £61 ; C, 3 Bowman, Mangaone, £10 ; J. Dixon, i Mangaone, £5; W. Cox, £3 10s ; 0, t Kent, Norsewood, £2 ; C. Bolstad, *** Norsewood, 1 ; J. Bolstad, £l ; H, f Petersen, 10s ; F. Torkilsen, £1 ss. 1 As?ets— 2 pack saddles, £8 ; stores • and tools, £60. Deficiency, J264 18j 3 lld. c The bankrupt handed in the following written statement -On August U I I took a contract from Stuart Bridge } at Mangaone to fell 770 acres bush ir * partnership with Frederick Lund 1 ovist. The price for the part I hav< " done was Ll 8s per acre, I had aboui LSO debts at the time of taking th< j contract. I went on with the work I, at the end of August I drew L 126 5s I W. F. Howlett, storekeeper, Pahiatua *, is Mr Bridge's agent, ana through bin Ej the money was paid under the con i tract. Howlett stopped L7l 5s foi lfc stores. I received L 55 and spent i ' mostly in paying my labour. On Sept 0 20 1 was entitled to draw L9O. How II }ett stopped Lsl 7s lld to pay hii _\ store.bijf. I did not acknowledge hii V right to stop the rijoney. Previous t( a tins I had bought out Lundqvist foi c Lls by P.N. L 9 10s (unpaid), P.N. Ll ti (paid), and 10s cash. Before leaving c me Lundqvist gave Howlett an ordei it to pay himself bis store account oui 0 of tfhy money coming to us. I did no 1 a know of this order, and when H. owlet 1 stopped the money I complained aboui it, out Howlett refused to pay me thi money. I was therefore unable t< ? pay my lahour, and other creditor U were pressing me and I had to stoi ! work. Tfce Wanes J, reived ftf t«i

f j Ho-iyleltt paid himself was about Ll9 7 10s. Out of this I have paid : labour, L 7.; -solicitor, L 7 10s ; current ex- [ pensfeS, Lb. . I have been sued by Selby, of Eketahuna, for LlB. I only gave him about L 4. The previous * accounts rendered by him were burned in a fire when my house was i destroyed. The cause of my bankruptcy is Howlett retaining the Lsl 7^B lld. I kept books while on the. - contract. They have been', seized byMr S. Bridge, who refuses to give them up. My stores, etc., at the camp have been taken possession of by my laboren without my consent. • The bankrupt was sworn, and stated that the written statement handed in was true. That L2O was paid to Davis, of Mangaone, by Howlett out of the last draw about the 26th of Sept. Charles Beaumont . has my books, npt S. Bridge. Mr. Bridge let the contract to Charles Beaumont when I left. My house at Norsewood was burned down three weeks before the big fire this year. lam a married man with no family.- I have been between 15 and 16 years in Hawke's Bay.. I have been contracting for bushfelling and formation most of the time. I have not been : bankrupt previous to this. Three years ago 1 owed* nothing at all j I had ao land then. The section held by Z. Fredericksen about 'two years ago was mortgaged for Ll5O. I signed seme arrangement by which the section should become mine if I paid my father LSO, and also paid the interest on the mortgage. The house on the section was insured for LIOO, and was burned down. This is the house I referred to in my statement. The house was insured in the N.Z. Insurance Co., Napier ; they refused to pay t_e LIOO, as they said it -was oyer-insured. They offered me L6O, which I agreed to accept. There is a dispute between Mr Miller and the Insurance Company. Mr Miller is the mortgagee. The house had been insured two years before it was burned. It was insured in my father's name. I paid the last premium. The land has always been registered in my father's name, and the mortgage was drawn in his name. ' About 2 months ago as I could not keep the agreement it fell through. • To Mr Robinson— The land is all in grass. I remember the 22nd Sept. Twill not swear tbat I told you that • the land belonged te Nme^ I bought some oats from you. I told you I intended to sow them, but I did not tell where. I swear you did not ask me (anything about the land nor did I tell you anything about the section. I used some of the oats for horse feed and have two left. I had four altogether. To the Assignee : I have no horses of my own. Three horses are at , Mangaone ; one of them belongs to my father, one to Bolstud, and the third to Howan, my brother-in-law. ' Mr Beaumont said that if anyone attempted to seize the books he would shoot him. About 200 acres have been felled. I have received 75 per cent, and there is a balance of 25 per cent due. A summons was taken out by Mr Jone^ and also by Selby, and when I asked for the draw I found I ' owed, labour, L4O, and-LSO to Mr Robinson, and, as I did not know ; which to pay, I, saw a solicitor and , eventually filed. ' I did not see any of my creditors. I told Robinson that I . intended to get a man to plough andi sow the oats. I obtained at the same ' time as the oats 3 boxes tea, 3 bags ' of sugar, and 3 sacks flour. They were divided equally between my father, my brother John and myself. ' When I gave the orders on Bridge to Robinson I was not aware that : Lundqvist had given an order on Howlett and I thought that these orders would be paid. At the time i the order was signed Lundqvist was a j partner with me and the order was signed by both of us and dated 27th of August. It was fully ten weeks after this that I wrote to Mr Bridge not to recognise any more orders (Tne dissolution , of partnership between Lundqvist and bankrupt was dated 27th August and witnessed by W. , Robinson.) Mr Robinson stated that he believed that when the order for . MO was ! given him the partners knew that it i would not bft honored. In answer, to Mr Small, bankrupt stated the goods received from Mr Small were divided between himself and Mr Lundqvist. Sold my saddle and bridle to ray father. The cattle I bought from Mr Petersen are held by my mother as security for money owing for rent. In reply to Mr Jones: When I came to Eketahuna I said I owed about I considered myself sol- , vent. I was burnt out there and lost my tools. The loss would be about , £40. Mr Jones : Very different to what ( you estimated it at the time. It was . £15 to £IQ at the outside then. p Examination continued: I drew > £23, and I had seven men to pay out , of it. For the first contract 1 got £8 ( 10s per acre, and the second was the > same. Pressed for a definite answer , upon this point bankrupt said there , might have been a shilling or two dif- . ference. , Mr Jardine having to leave to catch , the train Mr Robinson took the chair. ( To Mr Jones : I will swear it was , not L 9 or even L 8 10s. At that time t I had no land at Norsewood whatever. , I never gave you to understand that I had land. I remember telling you I 3 lived at Norsewood and was a single 3 man. I swear you did not ask me if I had any property. I never told you, . referring to my bill, that I was worth W a good deal more than that. 3 Mr Jones : You told me in my own i stere you had a section in JSTorsewood. Bankrupt : I never told you so. j Mr Jones : You did, and I have a b witness. } Bankrupt : I would not tell a false- • hood ; I would like to see your witness. \ To Mr Lundqvist : I don't know x anything about the section being transferred to my mother. I know r notliing about it. I sold the horse to fc my father two years ago. I have not „ sold one lately, and no man can pro- . duce a receipt to show I have. 3 Mr Lundqvist stated that bankrupt 3 had told him the land was his, and > that he intended to secure him- [• self. 5 To Mr Lundqvist : I did not give ? my wife L 4 wnen I returned from r seeing the solioitor, b To Mr Jones : It is two months t since I owned a horse. I sold that t; horse to my brother-in-law. The roan t horse at Mangaone ' belongs to my 3 father and the bay one to Mr Hari) wood. Ido not know who the other 3 one belongs to. 3 To Mr Small : Howard got some r gopdi to tb? sfcape of -?tor^ i\m m<

I lent them to, him ; there was not more than a week's supply. I neither lent- nor sold stores to anyone else. I know what became of the goods that went up/to the, contract. They went to the camp? VV < To Mr Robinson : When TMt the camp I did not take stock of the gboas. Everything of the last lot of goods yon sent was there. To Mr Small : I sent my father to look, after the goods. I gaVe him. tio written authority bnt I 'sent a letter to the man in charge. The reason I did not go back was because I knew I could not get on with the work. ,ToMr Robinson: I made, no arrangement with Mr Bridge about the payment of the balance. He wrote to me and said he had let the contract to Beaumont as I had not felled the quantity agreed upon. The first month I felled 125 acres, and the second month 85 acres. To Mr Small : I am living .now with my mother. . Mr Petersen asked if bankrupt could explain how it was he only owed LSO when he started the contract and he now owed over L3OO. Bankrupt said there had been a lot of money spent in tools, and tents, and such like, besides the stores. The stores were left in charge of one man. The cows were handed over to my mother just at the time we went up to start the block. MrPettersen: Precisely] when you told Mr Lundqvist you were going to . secure yourself. To Mr . Small : I had thirty men during the last month. Mr Small : They fell two acres per month each then ? Bankrupt : Well, they, were going and coming to and from the camp. I was not kicked out of the .camp. 'I wrote to the men at the camp about the things. To Mr Jones : > I did not tell you at Eketahuna that if pressed for money I would file. To Mr Robinson : I remember telling you I .would make L2OO out of the contract if let alone. To Mr Small : Some of the men were paid 7s and 8s per day, and some by the month. In estimating the profit from the contract 1 thought each man would fell three acres a week." Mr Small : That being so, how could you make out that you could nett L2OO I Bankrupt : I cannot say exactly. I cannot explain how it is that the men only worked about five days in the month. Mr Bobinson : You simply wished to mislead storekeepers and others. Bankrupt : No. It was proposed by Mr Small and seconded by Mr Jones, i'That the Public Assignee take immediate steps to secure ail books of accounts belonging to the debtor ; that he also ascertain to whom the section known as Fredericksen's belongs or has belonged ; also the cattle, horses, saddles, bridles, etc., that have been made over to relatives, also recover value of goods lent to Howard ; that the Assignee get legal opinion whether Fredericksen and Lundqvist jointly or separately cannot be prosecuted for obtaining goods under false pretences ; that he also ascertain if all monies deducted from contract by Mr Howlett can be recovered to the estate ; costs of enquiry to come out of the estate." . The motion was put and carried. It was further resolved that the Assignee write to Mr Bridge asking that any balance remaining in hand due on Frt'derickseu's contract may be handed oyer to the Assignee. Mr Burling, proposed, Mr Small seconded, That the Assignee be asked to call another meeting of creditors at Danevirke when necessary. Carried. -The meeting then adjourned-

Re W. Crump. The Official Assignee examined W. Crump yesterday at Mr Baraford's office. He said- The cause of my bankruptcy was my being summoned and judgment being obtained by Mr Rasmussen for the payment by me of L 5 per month. I have not had constant work. I built the Mangatera Hotel. The matter has not been settled up, Butler refusing to balance the books. Butler-acted as architect. I am. no scholar and have not kept any books. I became bankrupt 1 m consequence of taking the Mangatera Hotel contract. They took possession before the contract was completed. I gave Allardice an order to receive all monies due on the contract. The monies would go in reduction of his account. The nouse.l occupybelongs to my wife. The house was built with condemned timber from the Mangatera Ho f el. I say the house belongs to my wife because it is on her land. My wife has no private income. My brother gave her the money to buy the land. My wife has got the receipts. My brother and myself started to build the house about last Christmas, and we went to live in it about a month after Christmas. My brother boards with me and pays for his board. I cannot say if the contrac. for Henderson's building was signed W. Crump or Crump Bros.