NO ASSETS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 241, 12 October 1933, Page 5

NO ASSETS.

GISBORNE FARMER.

REGULAR MONTHLY INCOME.

PRINCIPAL CREDITOR'S OFFER

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) GISBOKNE, this day.

A bankrupt estate where debts, all to unsecured creditors, totalled £3200, against which there wore on assets, but where the bankrupt, jointly with his wife, was in receipt of £43 per month income from «a trust fund, was the unusual position revealed when Julius Dunlop Donner, described as a farmer, met his creditors yesterday afternoon. The fund referred to was held by the Public Trustee and was stated to amount to £10.750. It was suggested that the Court should be approached with a view to obtaining the release of some of this amount, but the principal creditor, "to show what he thought of it," eaid he was prepared to take half a crown in the pound. In his statement Donner said he attributed his position to one cau.se—the attitude adopted by the native trustee. The mortgage on his property at Waimana had expired, and the trustee refused to renew it and bankrupt was refused mortgagor's relief. The property, with 2300 acres broken in and considerably improved, was sold for 10/ per acre, whereas it had cost 37/0 undeveloped. A further difficulty was opposition by relatives to probate of his mother's will, which gave the native trustee a chance to seize his mother's properties under a personal covenant clause. Under the mortgage he was jointly liable with his mother for £9000 on the Waimana property. Bankrupt explained that his father died in 1895, and under hie will he and his sister were beneficiaries in equal shares subject to a life interest of his mother. His sister subsequently died intestate and half her share reverted to him and the other half to his mother. In '1924 he got into difficulties,

and under a deed of eettlement £7000 was paid out to him. He signed a transfer to the Public Trustee and when he married recently he signed another deed providing for half of the income from the fund to go to his wife. Since his marriage he had been receiving £4 17/0 per week, but half of this was left with the trustee for the payment of accounts. Mr. R. Gray, representing the Public Trustee, stated that the fund referred to amounted to £16,750, but he did not think this included money from the sale of the Longbush property. He was not in a position to say what could be done in regard to the fund, but the creditors could go to the Court for an order and the trustee would not oppose it. Mr. K. A. Woodward suggested that the marriage settlement was of no eil'ect, but the assignee, Mr. J. N. Nalder, said this point was open to dispute. Mr. Woodward remarked that the net income received by bankrupt and his wife from the fund was £4.3 per month. Donner said he was prepared to give half his share from the fund towards the creditors. Mr. A. Owen: I am prepared to take half a crown in the pound now. That is what I think of it. The meeting was adjourned to enable the trustee to consult with the Public Trustee.