DETERMINED TO PAY

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4806, 5 July 1939, Page 8

DETERMINED TO PAY

UNUSUAL SITUATION. The determination of an elderly woman to pay a debt of 19s 7d owing for 11 years has given the Official Assignee the impossible problem of dividing that sum equitably amongst 43 creditors whose unsatisfied claims amount to some £9OO, states the Christchurch Star-Sun. When she called at the Official Assignee’s office a week ago, the woman explained that she owed 19 7d to a baker who “recently” went bankrupt. She was somewhat surprised —as was the official Assignee-—to learn that her “recently” was in 1928. Time had slipped past so quickly. During the intervening years, the thought of the 19s 7d owing to the bankrupt baker had been frequently in her mind, but she had been through hard times, and while, she had.always meant to pay, this was her first opportunity to do so.

The Official Assignee pointed out that her 19s 7d was a negligible sum in a deficit of some £9OO, and too infinitesimal to divide equitably among 43 creditors; that the books of the estate were long since closed; and that the creditors had long since written the loss off their own' books. Nevertheless, the woman was determined to be honest. This meant that a member of the Official Assignee’s staff - had to plunge down into the gloomy cellars of the Government Buildings and discover from 'the dusty accumulation of documents the file of the case. The woman’s name did not even appear amongst the list of the bankrupt’s debtors; even he had forgotten the 19s 7d owing to him. When the woman called again to learn the result of these, researches, she was told that since the equitable distribution of her 19s 7d would be impossible, the Governemtn would probably get it in the end. “Well, of course, 1 could do with it, you know,” she said, wavering a little.

“Yes, forget all about it,” she was advised. “But no,” she continued in a firmer voice, ‘I owe it, and I'm going to pay it.” And the unwanted, orphaned, and ownerless 19s 7d was pushed firmly across the counter.