"UNDUE OPTIMISM."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 250, 22 October 1935, Page 8

"UNDUE OPTIMISM."

MAT AM ATA BANKRUPT. INVESTIGATION REQUESTED. After running a sports and fancy goods shop and .an electrical contracting business in Matamata for 18 months, Barrington Kingsford, who had been a partner ' with William Robertson Edwards, met his creditors at Auckland this morning at a meeting which was presided over by Mr. E. C. Crowhurst, Official Assignee at Hamilton.

Bankrupt said that he had started in the business with £53, of which £40 had been given him by his eister-in-law and £107 worth of stock obtained on consignment from his father. Further stock had been obtained on credit or by purchase from time to time. In April of this year, after he had been trading for 18 months, several creditors, including the landlord, obtained judgments against him, and he could not carry on. In that time he had drawn only living expenses, amounting in all to £330, from the business. He had not drawn up a statement of liis position at any time, but considered that it was steadily improving as he- became established, though keen competition had affected the business. Kingsford said that he could make no offer to his creditors.

Several of the creditors said they considered that the bankruptcy was due purely to "youthful ignorance and undue optimism," but others were of the opinion that there had been carelessness in the keeping of accounts, and the Official Assignee was asked to investigate the position further.