BANKRUPT AGENT

Hawera Star, Volume L, 23 October 1930, Page 6

BANKRUPT AGENT

ESTATE OF A. EOWLANDS

MEETING OF CREDITORS “I attribute my insolvency chiefly to the fa'e.t that 'without any previous experience or training I engaged on any own account in a business which I now know demands technical and business knowledge, and also to the fact that L spent considerable capital and incurred liability for large sums endeavouring to develop an agency for a typewriting machine which turned out a" disappointment, ” stated Arthur Rowlands, commission' agent, of Hawera, to a meeting of his creditors vesterdav. The deficiency in the estate is £309 10s' 9cl.

The amount owing to unsecured creditors is £1232. Os !>d. The secured creditors are: Bank of New Zealand, Hawera, £6lO, estimated _ security £1000; F. Mourie (Atanaia) £540, estimated security, £955. The security to the bank is by way of mortgage over bankrupt 's init.crest- in 'his father 's wul aivd by a guarantee given by F. Mourie. Mr Mourie's security is over steel furniture costing £406. native debts for £503 10s- Sd. also a personal covenant. by Mr and Airs G. Treweek, security over interest in bankrupt s father's will in. support of the bana guarantee for £SOO, security over £4l v worth of shares in the. Hawera .Almcral Water Co., Etch, and; security over interest in the will and furniture. The assets are: Stock in trade, £SO; book debts. £l2B 9s (estimated to produce £4o);' 15 shares in Hawera Almeral Water Co. and New Zealand Tobacco Co., £27 10s; surplus' from securities in hands of secured creditors £BOS. a total 1 of £922. 10s.

The principal unsecured' creditors are- II L. Young. Ltd. (Palmerston North). £303 Ms; Armstrong and Spriiighale (Wellington), £9S_ 17s Jd; Tvpewritcr Maintenance Service O' ellinnton). £3l 3s lid; Lysons, Ltd. (Ha-w-era ), £34 19s 7d; H. L. Tilley (New Plvmouth). £54 2s- 2d; E. Martin' (New Plymouth), £3O 12s 3d; Le Grove Typewriter Importing Co., Ltd. (Wellington). £3l 11s 10cl; Welsh, McCarthy, Beeehev and Houston (Hawera), £33 11s; F; D. Buckley (Hawera), £63;'11. Bailey (New Plymouth), £46; Air Shaw (New Plymouth), £53.

‘‘T came to Hawera from IVellington in 1922. whore I had been, a clerk in the House of ■Representatives and common red business in Hawera as a nativo agent.” added bankrupt. “I found it dffieult to make-a living and incurred a number of debts. In June, ] 926. my father died in England leaving an estate which T was informed was sworn for death duty purposes at about £62.000. and that after payment of legacies of between £SOOO and £9OOO I was entitled to a. one-sixth share in the residue. In June, 1927, I received' a payment from my. father s estate of £1612, and with this stun I paid all my debts and had a few hundred pounds over. In July of the same year I became the Hawera agent for the Taranaki Typewriter Service, which was run by Mr Le Grove, of New Plymouth. In December, 1927, I received a. further sum of £l49s from my father’s 1 estate- and in the beginning of 1928 another sum of £3370. In January, 1928, I purchased Mr Le

Grove’s interest in iiis Taranaki Typewriter business including bis agency for a typewriter, the price being my assuming liability for the debts of Mr Le Grove’s business, and my agreeing to employ Mr Le Grove for a year as my New Plymouth manager. Mr Le Grove ran the New Plymouth business for about a year and at the end of 1 hat time left owing me, according bo ntr accountant’s' report, £B7 odd. In the first year I spent, about £4OO developing the New Plymouth business, expecting that when the business' was established I would get a good return for the money I was spending, and I believe that notwithstanding that Mr Le Grove did not treat me as he should have done, the typewriter business would, have been a. success if the-mach-ine had been the article which I was Jed to believe it was, but experience showed that it could not compete with certain other machines on the market, and I was sorely disappointed. “I carried on in llawera the typewriter business myself with the assistance of a mechanic, and I advanced considerable sun% to natives' in the hope of getting their land business, and I regret to say I had considerable losses from my dealings with the natives. For instance, I invested over £4OO in the Llawera Mineral Wafer Co.. Ltd., and it did not turn out a paying proposition. I was induced to buy £440 worth of steel office fittings, and these I have found impossible to sell at the price- they cost. Then Mr F. I fr. Trewoek promised to pay mo £2-~ if j I would guarantee his bank account. I I did so, and I had to pay the bank ■ £3-"S .in consequence. “I regret that I cannot sav definitely what amount is yet to come from my father’s estate. I have never had any statement from the trustees. However. I do not think that I would be I over estimating the money yet lo cornel if I stated the amount at £1000.”

ADVANCES TO AIAORIS

Replying to the D.0.A., bankrupt said he" had invested in two companies tcrnlv, involving £468 15s. He considered that he had lent about £BO0_ or £9OO to Maoris, about £7OO of which was still outstanding. He had paid £SS on a car and in taking over the New Plymouth business he had- paid £llO as being debts owed by Le- Grove. ■Mr A. Iv. North suggested that the matter of how bankrupt had spent over £6420 in three years, which he had received from his father’s estate, should: be left to the D.O.A. to investigate* and report to a fuller meeting. Answering Mr McAlister, bankrupt said, be had discussed! his business position with. Mr Alourie over the past twelve months, but Mr Mourie had financed him without knowing his (bankrupt’s) full position. Air Mourie had first guaranteed his bank account for £SOO, in March, 1929. He had given Mr Mourie a deed of assignment over his interest in his father’s estate. A bill of sale over his stock of steel furniture was also bold by Air Alourie. AVhen Air Alourie had advanced him another £l5O he knew that bankrupt had other debts which he had to pay. Mr Alourie would know that the only asset on which, he ultimately could borrow money was the interest in his father’s estate.

Air AFcAlistor said that tiro point, he wished to make was that bankrupt, had given collateral security over his interest in his father’s estate after the execution of a distress warrant, which

had been returned nulla bona over a month before. Further questioned, bank-nipt' said he had not. received typewriters from 11. Jj. Voting, Ltd., on consignment for sale on the firm ’s behalf, but that, they had been charged directly to him. To Air North, bankrupt said, that in credit, advances, and money from his father’s estate he bad had about £9600 in three years. The meeting nvng finally adjourned for a month, the D.O.A. in the- meantime to ascertain further particulars of bankrupt’si affairs.