LOUIS JOSEPH LEE.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVII, Issue 4177, 3 January 1871, Page 3

LOUIS JOSEPH LEE.

Several paragraphs have appeared in the papers respecting the insolvency of Louis Joseph Lee, late of Auckland, but the following from the Melbourne Age has not yet been published : — "The Chief Commissioner of Insolvent Estates.in delivering judgment in the case of Louis Joseph Lee, late of Auckland, said : The circumstances under which the present application is made fail entirely to exonerate the insolvent, and, on the contrary, involve him in grave culpability. In February, 18G3, he obtained a certificate of discharge from debts amounting to £2,000 ; between that date and 1867 he compounded with his creditors, and was released from debts £2,000. In February, 1-869, he obtained a second certificate for debts amounting- to £60S ; and in April, 1870, for the third time, on the surrender of assets which have realised £36, he liled his schedule, and now applies foradischarge from an indebtedness of £2,373. 111 1 observe that he states he arrived in New r Zealand in the same month as the last certificate was granted with £700, and, if his story is true, he must have almost instantly lost the whole of his capital in mining speeuI lations, for, although he commenced business at once, he commenced it in debt to the amount : of £400. In the course of only twelve months' \ trading he incurred the liabilities now due. I It seems that his business was never prosperous, and he never solvent ; yeb one of the causes of insolvency m the affidavit is tho dishonour by one Joseph ol an accommodation acceptance for £500. His relation to his creditors should have prevented his risking anything on accommodation bills. Another alleged cause was the absconding of a quasi partner, one "Richards, with 500 sovereigns. J3eyond a feeble inquiry of one or twojpersons whether they had seen the absconder, he did positively nothing to arrest him or recover the money. These facts might ha^e been easilyinvestigated in New Zealand, where he ought to have filed his schedule. Ho has chosen to come here without books and without witnesses to corroborate lm assertions, and the creditors justly complain that he has tricked them and endcavouied to defeat their rights. The couise he has pm sued in coming to sequestrate Ins estate in this country instead of the place where he had been carrying on business has necessarily rendeied it veiy difficult to ascertain whether the position of his affaiis leally was as he represents it — a result, I cannot help thinking, he expected and desired. For no valid or even colourable reason has been given why, having abandoned his business to bis brothei-, he should come here, without means, to settle with creditors to whom he owed £389, and le ive behind him, w ith little or no communication of bis intention, creditors to whom he owed at least double the amount. So that, on the ground alone that this is an application within three years of a prior discharge, I think it waM be my dtitsy, in presence of such facts, to exeicise the discretion the Act gives me by refusing the certificate rattier than suspending it. About a fortnight after his arrival he was arrested, at the suit of Messis. King and Pai sons. He went w ith the bailiff to Mr. Aarons's office, where he had a conversation ■with Messrs. King, Brahain, and Aarons. He admitted to them, as it seems to me, his p<vrt, dishonesty, in these terms : — ' lioncefoith he \iould act on the square ; he could not expect confidence to bo placed in him after the w.iy he had acted, and that he intended to turn over a new leaf.' He also told them that ho had money in Auckland, winch would be brought over, and ena l le him to pay the balance of the debt. He confessed that he had 'made £500 out of the afl'air,* that the money was in ])OS<3essiou of Asher, his f athcr-m-law, and that it was proceeds of goods sold at auction and in other ways. His "Nvife was called, and admitted, by inference-, that her father had the money, for she said he would not &end it till he heard they were married, 'f he information given by insolvent in the first examination agrees with and confirms the statement said to have been made to Aarons, ' I sold some stock by auction to the amount of about £1,000 within three months of my departure.' In another place, indeed, he gives certain sums as paid to creditois within six months of his depaituie, but they might all have been, and home certainly were, paid before the £1,000 was realised. Now this evidence appeals to me sufficient basis for the conclusion that, either personally or by agent, he WfVJ l"»<">S'sr>aeecl of rnu«icloi % o.V>lo ooocts when he left New Zealand. When a tradei, having once compounded with his or-editora and twice sequestrated his estate, immediately after obtaining discharge here, has canied £700 into a neighboring colony, and there not only lost it in mining speculation, but in the course of only twelve months' trade become indebted for & 2,373, without giving any satisfactory account of the causes of his failure, and has finally left in haste the place whei'e his trade was carried on and the lo&ses incurred, where the creditors to whom he was most largely indebted lived, and the investigation of his affairs would have been easy and natural, to come here, without assets, where the inquiry is expensive and difficult, if not altogether impossible, it. is evident, I think, that he intended to take his creditors in both colonies at a disadvantage. He is not entitled to a certificate ; and at their request I shall report him, in order that they may have an opportunity of applying to the Supremo Court to inflict such further penalty as it may deem expedient."

During our tour we appeared atDruvy-lane Theatre, then under the management of Mr. Spence Stokes, an American. The principal attraction was the supeilative riding of a young lady called Ella, who performed feats of graceful daring uevei' befol'6 afcfcginptel by any equestrienne. She was idolised by the young swells frequenting the theatres, and created quite a furore. But she proved to be a "mockery, a delusion, and a snare," for shortly after this, when Ella was performing in a cirque in Germany, with princes and dukes for suitors, being serenaded every night, and receiving valuable presents of diamond bracelets, rings, &c, it was all at once discovered by convincing evidence that the charming Ella was no woman at all, but a human of the masculine gender. The deception had been well kept up, for I have known Ella upwards of seven years, and never had the slightest suspicion of her sexual deception, although I was acquainted with her mother in £Jew Orleans. As soon as the trick was exposed the news spiead like wildfire. Fellows who had kissed her hand with rapture, and made her costly presents, were lushing about like madmen, with pistols anc (.wards, to take tho Jife of tho male sirer With the aid of some ingenuity and a cieve disguise, however, an escape was made. Ana the last time I saw the f ascinatins Ella. uo was accompanied hy a cheerful and amiable wife, and vras the father o£ two lovely children. The exposure must have caused a blush on the faces of many honeat females in Great Britain and America, for he had for years dressed with actresses in their rooms, and been received into private families on terms of the greatest intimacy with the ladies, as perfectly unsuspected as Don Juan in the harem. This made the imposition cruel ; taking in the public might be pardoned. — "The Public Life of W. P. Wallet, the Queen's Jester," Edited by John Luntley. [The Ella above referred to was a member of a circus company which performed for some time in Auckland j but few persons were imposed upon here. — Ed.] A ship is not so long a-rigging as a young girl is in trimming herself against the arrival of a sweetheart. No painter's shop,no flowery meadow, no graceful aspect in the storehouse of mature, is comparable to a young damsel who is dressing for a husdand. The fashions" do not change so frequently as they used to do a few months since. It seems the retirement of the Empress of the French and the subsequent siege of Paris have paralysed the efforts of Worth, and Go. and the other milliners so muc,h that it is , even feared that ladies may be obliged to ; dress in exactly the same way that they did a year ago. The result, cannot but be moat disastrous. Fathers of families may perhaps find their sons and daughters actually paying 1 more attention to the cultivation of their ' minds than tho adornment of their foodies, and the soft-goods-men will not be able to | build, aoy mwp^UtW wJH^iwjws^