“MONUMENT” TO BANKRUPT

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27277, 18 February 1954, Page 12

“MONUMENT” TO BANKRUPT

File Two Feet High On Activities (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) BRISBANE. Feb. 16. A file two feet high stands in the Brisbane Bankruptcy Court as a monument to Charles Coward, aged 62, a company director who died yesterday at his Redcliffe home, near Brisbane.

Coward, an Englishman, was declared bankrupt in New Zealand and New South Wales before coming to Queensland. He had trouble in 1947 when the Taxation Department opened investigations into his association with two tobacco companies and a sequestration order was ' issued against him in 1950 on the petition of the Tax Commissioner. His liabilities were stated to be £151,161. and his assets £ 7358.

In the bankruptcy hearing which followed. Coward caused several Court sensations. His appearance had to be postponed because of his submissions that he was too ill to attend. In 1952 he fell to the floor when seated iin Court and in December of the i same year he was ordered to the ; debtors’ section of the goal until he had jmade “proper answers” to the Court’s satisfaction.

This order was the result of Coward’s refusal to answer a question involving £186.000 accessible to him between 1942 and 1948. He stayed in gaol for eight months until the High Court upheld his appeal against the order.

Coward also caused amusement in local political circles when he was nominated as an Independent Labour candidate and proposed to have his racehorses, decorated with election slogans, parade through the city streets. The’police refused him a permit. Court actions will be continued against Coward’s estate.