BANKRUPT INDIAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 139, 13 June 1936, Page 18

BANKRUPT INDIAN.

MONEYLENDERS BLAMED. HIGH RATE OF INTEREST. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SUVA, June 8. There has been an outcry recently about the high interest charged by local moneylenders, who are chiefly Indian Punjabis. A case in point came before the Supreme Court last week, when it sat in bankruptcy. An Indian clerk, a civil servant, filed his schedule, which showed debts amounting to £825 and assets estimated at £25 and cash totalling £5. He said he had been 121 years in the service, and was receiving £270 per annum. He estimated that his medical expenses for the past six years had been between £400 and £500. He said he started borrowing in 1920 with £15, of which he had repaid £4. In 1931 he had guaranteed another man's debt. A loan of £175 had been guaranteed by his two uncles. He later borrowed more money from this man to pay his passage to Sydney.

Questioned, bankrupt said that, with loans, he had received £1145 in the years 1932 and 1933. Since he returned to the colony in 1935 lie had borrowed a further £104. He was paying 30 to 45 per cent on some of the loans. He admitted lie had borrowed £S0 from an old "bottleoh" Indian three months before lie had filed his schedule. He did not know, he said, that he was insolvent, although in 1934 he owed £000. Parbu, the bottle buyer, had demanded 00 per cent, but debtor had obtained the money at 30 per cent. He had tokl Parbu that he would repay the loan in 12 months. He said that since 1931, when he had got into the hands of moneylenders, he had been paying very high interest. Ilie examination was declared closed.