A QUEEN-STREET DRAPER'S INSOLVENCY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 121, 30 May 1885, Page 2

A QUEEN-STREET DRAPER'S INSOLVENCY.

Augustus Linabury was examined ou oath to-day by the Official Assignee. Ho said :— I am a draper, and started business about the middle of 1883 at No. 208, Queen-street, Auckland. I then had a capital of £19. Messrs Harcourt and Co., of Wellington, supplied me with goods to the value of £300. I paid a weekly rent of £5 and rates for my business premises. I also procured goods from various merchants in Auckland. During tho first 12 months the business paid. On ■ taking stock at the end of the first year, I found a balance of about £300 to the good. Since then my business gradually fell away, owing firstly to a sale of a large drapery stock by Cosgrave and Co., who carried on business next door to me; secondly, to the limited capital and credit- which I could command. Messrs Coupland and Co. (landlords of the business premises), knowing that I was short of capital, allowed the debt to run on to the extent of £460. After it had reached this amount, on the 13th May, 1885, they distrained for the amount, and a week afterwards the whole of my stock, which I valued at £1,500, was sold by public auction, realising under £500. _ Other creditors also pressing me, necessitated my seeking the protection of the Bankruptcy Act. Immediately Messrs Coupland and Co. put the bailiff in possession I consulted threo of my principal creditors-Messrs Shera Bros., G. Lewis, and Harcourt and Co,, and, acting under their advice, I' closed the premises, and they employed Mr Chatfield to prepare a stock and balance-sheet. 1 have not seen the results arrived at, but believe it stands as follows :—Stock in trade, £1,209 2s Id ; book debts, £129 13s 9d ; fixtures, £208 2s lid; assets, £1,536 18s 9d; liabilities, £2,296 4s lid. The latter item includes £160 for rents, and for which the whole of the above assets (except the book debts and an ironsafe)were realised by auction. The land and residence at Ponsonby, which belonged to my wife, and my furniture, have been sold under bill of sale, &c„ for £150 less than the liens on them. I have no other assets or prospects beyond what I may acquire by my own future exertions.