BANKRUPT BUILDER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 146, 21 June 1923, Page 12

BANKRUPT BUILDER.

SIX MONTHS' BUSINESS. -lATTER T<> 00 BEFORE CROWN ..Oi-ICTTOR. The adjourned meeting of creditors of TCilliani Reid. Inii!d<-r. formerly of Auckland and now of Kaikohe, was held at the Official Assignee's ofliee yesterday afternoon. The Official Assignee said that when Reid went bankrupt, according to bis schedule, he was owing £115- •">/ and his assets were set down as £1070. Tinlatter were made up of book debts £39t>, furniture £180. and property £120. The claims proved against the estate were £1018, and there would be. as far as lie could see. nothing coming from the hook debts. The furniture had been valued and was now set down as worth j C7O. while the property was assessed at £12.30. The mortgages amounted to £1030. At the previous meeting the bankrupt undertook to produce the books on the following day. but these had not been received until some lime later. From the appearance ot one it seemed as though it had only recently -een made up and he (the Official Assignee) was of the opinion that it had been made up since the bankruptcy. It hhowed in round figures thai the receipts from the time lie started in business in .November up to the time of his bankruptcy, were £2533, and the payments out through the bank were .U22U7 and £260 in cash. '. Bankrupt's solicitor explained that i tlie bankrupt had three contracts, two j of wliich lie had undertaken before he actually ascertained his position. { The Official Assignee remarked that j from an examination of the position the » bankrupt appeared to have lost a little j tinder £1000 in six months. ; Bankrupt's solicitor pointed out that j his client had done £325 worth of work \ on one job for which he had not received J credit nor payment, while he lost £1('0 lon another. All his payments and re- ; ee.ipts with Aery few exceptions, had been through the bank, and, therefore, as he had produced his books lie had made every effort to explain his affairs. Tn reply to- the Official Assignee, bankrupt stated that he had made up the last two pages of his casli receipt and payment book after the bankruptcy, but as he did not keep receipts after payment lie could not produce them. There ought to be a sum of about £70 coming from one job, while £120 was lost on another, and there was £:IUO spent on the house he was living in. Divorce proceedings had cost, him £t>o and he had two children to maintain. If he had received one progress payment in January when it was'iiue he thought he would have been able to pull through all right. A creditor remarked that this was a ease where he thought they should go to the extreme limit. Here was a man •who went into business for six months and got behind to the extent of nearly JiIOOO. He had no> satisfactory explanation. The creditors moved that the matter be placed in the hands of the Crown Solicitor with a view to prosecution. Bankrupt's solicitor again urged that the bankrupt bad given an answer and had shown how the money bad been expended. The motion was put and carried.