BANKRUPT JEWELLER.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 45, 22 February 1929, Page 5

BANKRUPT JEWELLER.

wss ON SHEEP FARM.

ST AT KM KXT TO CREDITORS.

A meeting of creditors in the estate of John Edward Fitt. watchmaker and jeweller was held to-d*y in Auckland. Mr J. H. Robertson. Official Assignee in Bankruptcy at Hamilton, presidium . crHitor '' claims amounted to .40° lj,. Tl )e assets totalled £«7-' l 11/. leaving an apjvirent surplus to credit of £212 9/.1. The asset, included stock-in-trade. £341 1 :»/•!. book delrts estimated to produce £42. fitting. £$G 16/. and property. £202 19/ G. Bankrupt stated that he started business with about £2.V In 101S he was worth £*000. He took in a partner with about the same capital, and thev inircliascd a sheep farm of 1345 acres at Whangamomon*. Taranaki district When he sold out. he lost half his savings. He started apain iu the jewcllerv and watchmaking business, but was caught when the slump came, with £000(1 worth of stock bought at iK-ak prices. I his dropjied one third in value He squared up all his debts, and was left with £tiOO. He paid £200 for the <roodwill of a small shop in Auckland, but jit was not a success. He drr.pjied the £200 and purchased a business i n Kaiangahapc Road. He arranged to se]| this again, but the purchase, although arrauged. was not completed. He then tried to sell his stock by auction, wliieii proved disastrous, and he stopped the sale.

I'nder examination, bankrupt said it was about 1010 he started with £2%. During the war he had four establishments. and that was how he was worth £Sof>r> in mis. About £4000 was ,„, t into the sheen farm, and lost when he sold out. After that he opened lip a new- shop in Palmerston North. He left there in 10i"». with £»iOO, in eluding some prom'ssorv notes. Illness in his family necessitated leaving Auckland. He sent al«.ut £-*»00 worth of stock to auction, but j«ricewere so low that he stor>]>ed the sale and took the ha la nee of the goods to the country. At present he was workin? on wnjes. Mr. Roltertson commented noon the fact that liankrupt had sold some of his stock at auction, and removed the balance to the country without having consulted bis creditors. A committee was appointed to act with the assignee in realising the assets.