THE LAST DAY'S WORK.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13104, 1 May 1908, Page 8

THE LAST DAY'S WORK.

RETIREMENT OF MR G. L GREENWOOD.

INTERESTING REMINISCENCES

It has fallen to few public servants to have to their credit a record of such long and honourable service as that which distinguishes Mr G. L. Greenwood, Official Assignee in Bankruptcy, Chriscehureh, who retires from to-day on ■superannuation. Mr Greenwood presided yesterday in tho old familiar room at a meeting of creditors, .and thus he went out of office absolutely in harness, his last day's work as Official Assignee carried through. The office had been held in Christchurch by Mr Greenwood for sixteen years, and it can be said that professionally he has earned the confidence and esteem of business men with whom his business brought him into contact, and the gratitude, of many of those who, as bankrupts, passed through hus hands, ior the consideration, consistent with his duty to the State and the creditors, which ho invariably extended to them. Mr Greenwood was for several years in the service of tho Nelson Provincial Government, tho position, of Clerk of the Warden's Court being the principal offico then held by him, though his other offices were multitudinous. On the abolition of the provinces. Mr Greenwood went out of tho service, but a. year later ho was appointed assistant clerk of the Magistrates Court at Oamaru. He was promoted some time later to bo Clerk of the Court at Gisborne, and while stationed in that town he was transferred to the District Court. Mr Greenwood's appointment to tho offices of Sheriff and Registrar of the Supremo Court followed, and associated with these offices were thoso of Registrar ot Births, Deaths, and Marriages, Registrar of Electors, and a host of others of a minor character. Mr Greenwood remained in Gisborne for sixteen, years, and in September, 1891, he was transferred to Christchurch with the offico of Official Assignee. . As he landed in New Zealand in 1813, Mr Greenwood can claim, with somo pride, that lie was a very early colonist. His father. Dr. Greenwood, was ono of th(* original land purchasers under the New Zealand Company, and Gieenrwood, then in hie ehLMhood. landed with him at Nelson in the year mentioned, whon the arrival of the "first four ships'' of tho Canterbury settlement was several years away from realisation. Those were stirring if not epacioue, times, the difficulties of colonisation being aggravated by trouble with tho natives. Not many montlis after Mr Greonwood landed the- Wairau massacre occurred, and the settlers- of Nelson went about in fear and trembling, as dt was quite on the cards that Te Raupaxaha, the fighting chief, would extend his sanguinary excursion in their direction. That the chief would have succeeded in wiping out the settlement ihad lie r.iade the diversion there could not bo much doubt, end for a considerable tJmo matters were greatly disturbed. Mr Greenwood's parents settled at Motueka, and there the Maoris debated for a .coneideraibl© time whether they should turn out the pakehas who had settled there or not.

"1 well remember one fencing dis- * pnt-e," said Mr Greenwood reminisoently, to a "Press" reporter. "The Maoris refused to allow a settler to fentee his iejud, and the -whites and natives met in arms three mornings ruiiming. The epokesman for the whites was Captain Moore, am old trader, anid a man of inflexible determination. Ho throw down the gauntlet by declaring that if a Maori ,put »■ ihand on the fence he Trould chop the hand off, and ho was backed up by aH the whit© eetiJore that oould be mustered, and supplied with, a mascellaneous aesortmeoiit of arms. Many of the whites had ■never seen, a shot fired in,their livee, aaid," Mr Greenwood continued with a emiJe, "if the Maoris hod attacked they would ihave gone through them liko greased lightning. However, they talked the matter orer, amd thx» determined front shown, together with, the personal popularity of several of the settlers, weighed the ibulanoe down on tJio eide of peace. iMy father's personal irrauenoe over the natives, acquired through his medical and eurgicai ministreitione to them, had a ißreat deal to do witJi the avoidance of Woodshed on that occasion. , ■*

Mr Greenwood obtainfcd his first ! view of Lyttelton on the occasion of the arrival of the .first four ships, and lie, with his friends, was delighted to discover that Captain Dale, who had! tended them in New Zealand some eight years previously, was in. command of the Randolph. Mr Greenwood has an' entertaining fund of anecdotes about life in the early days, and the colonists travels over the untrodden and sometimes uninviting stretches of the now land. One experience of a humorous character may 'bo mentioned. Along with a friend.' Mr Greenwood' rowed from Port Chalmers to Dunedin, ' —a long and strong pull—and on arrival at the settlement (which Ihmedin was in 1830) they found, the jetty practically deserted, and the only hotel was minus a barman. They had been sustained in their journey by visions of "lonp shandies" at the finish, and the shock they received when they discovered that there was nothing to drink and no one to get them a refresher was almost overwhelming. In the course of his bankruptcy experience in Gisbome and Chrkbchurch Mr Greenwood has dealt with over 800 cases. '*My experience has not been such as to givo mc a poorer opinion of human nature than I had previously entertained." he said. '-"Whenever there has been a case of genuine misfortune, brought about by uncontrollable causes, the creditors general'y have exhibited a kindly and considerate spirit towards the bankrupt. In many instances they have done more than one could possibly expect. A very smaH proportion "of the cases which have passed through mv hands •were the result of deliberate'villaiuv on the part of the- bankrupt." ''Tho principal causes of bankruptcy? Well a larQo proportion arc aue to people embarking in businesses in which they have had little or no previous experience, with little or no capital. Other people have no idea oi book-keeping, and get into difficulties through tliat ignorance. Other bankruptcies are brought about by pure misfortune, and these form a large class. For instance, farmers have been utterly rurned through hailstorms destroying crops which were promising liberal returns for the labour and money spent on them. As to the Bankruptcy Court being improperly used to «<* rid of liabilities, I think that with very few exceptions no one comes into the Court who is not absolutely justified in doing bo. Fraudulent cases are a very small minority indeed."