SHOP OWNER BANKRUPT

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31177, 29 September 1966, Page 5

SHOP OWNER BANKRUPT

Deficiency Of £6628 A meeting of the creditors of David de Joux Austin, an insurance agent, 'of Christchurch, was adjourned sine die by the Official Assignee (Mr T. A. F. Withers) after creditors had agreed they were unable to separate the private affairs from the business affairs of the bankrupt ,until further information was available. Austin was adjudged bankrupt on September 14. The bankrupt’s statement of affairs disclosed a total deficiency of £6628 Is 3d. Unsecured creditors were owed £1290 Is 3d and secured creditors £5320 after taking in £lBO as the estimated value of securities. Other liabilities amounted to £lB. In a statement of reasons for his bankruptcy, Austin said that he went into business with a Mrs G. M. Duncan on April 1, 1964, in the Church Corner Dairy (1964) Ltd. They contributed £5OO each in capital. The purchase price of the business was £3665. There was one debenture for £2OOO with General Foods, Ltd., and one for £5OO with J. Rattray and Son, Ltd. The balance of £1165 was paid by Mrs Duncan and himself.

After being in business for nine months he opened a branch at Kaiapoi. It was a dairy and fruit business called the Green Leaf. The premises were rented and fixtures valued at £745 were put into it. Mrs Duncan looked after this shop while he ran the Riccarton shop. "Everything ran very smoothly for about three months until Mrs Duncan decided that it was too much for her and then just walked out,” Austin said. “This made things very difficult as I had to employ a woman and this cost more than the shop was making. ' “I got behind with the accounting and the business became a great mess,” he said. As an insurance agent he was now earning £l6 a month retainer, and commission. His average earnings since starting with the company in June were £25 a week.

While in the dairy business neither he nor Mrs Duncan had a set wage. Whatever they needed they drew from the business by cheque.

M- Withers said that full details of the company affairs of the bankrupt would be known before the next meeting of creditors was called.