Samoan church board ordered wound up

Press, 5 December 1985, Page 4

Samoan church board ordered wound up

PA Auckland The Congregational Christian Church of Samoa (Kingsland) Trust Board was ordered yesterday to be wound up. The board got into financial difficulties in 1982 when it was building a new church in the suburb of Kingsland. A lawyer was jailed for fraudulently using money paid to him by that and other churches, and the Kingsland board brought in a new builder, Monarch Construction, to complete its church.

Monarch finished the building early last year, but

the board was unable to complete payment of the $135,000 owed, the company’s counsel, Mr Michael Crew, told the High Court. He said the company was still owed $45,000, while the Bank of New Zealand was owed about $420,000 for a mortgage over the property. The 22 families represented on the Kingsland Trust Board had rejected an offer to buy the church for §BOO,OOO. The October 30 offer would have enabled them to get a more modest church but they simply did not want to sell, Mr Crew said.

Theftrust board’s counsel, Mr Cliff Lyon, sought an

adjournment of the windingup action until February so that church members could hold a fund-raising campaign when they return to work after Christmas.

“I am told in excess of $200,000 can be expected,” he said.

Mr Justice Hillyer rejected the adjournment request. “One, of course, has sympathy with a church struggling to pay for a building, but this debt has been outstanding for a substantial time,” he said.

The provisional liquidator of the Kingsland Trust Board will be the Official / Assignee in Auckland.