COST OF A HOLIDAY.

Mataura Ensign, 25 January 1911, Page 6

COST OF A HOLIDAY.

♦ £19,000 SPENT IN EIGHT WEEKS. At the London Bankruptcy Court on December the case of Mr ,E. F. W. Schiff, of Gloucesterplace, Portman Square, \V., was heard in connection with the debtor's public examination. Accounts furnished showed liabilities £47,308, and assets £4O, but a composition of Bs. in the pound, payable by the debtor's uncle, on the approval of the proposal, has been act opted by the creditors. From 1899 until March last the debtor was in part::<v*iiip with a firm of stockbrokers carrying on business on the London Stock Exchange, and he then retired from the firm in consequence of his financial embarrassments. Questioned by the Official Receiver, the debtor said that at the end of last year he went for a holiday to the south of France, being accompanied by a *idy. They touched Paris and Nice, where he purchased a large quantity of jewellery, which he presented to his companion, and then arrived at Monte Carlo. One of his purchases was a large diamond, for which he agreed to pay £5,560, giving his acceptance for that amount, but the jeweller was now a creditor against his estate, as the acceptance had not been met. The debtor further said that he also bought a string of pearls, some rings and brooches, for £6,500; those articles he likewise gave to the lady, and there, again, the jeweller had not been paid. The debtor added that he returned from the trip by himself, and from first to last the holiday of six or eight weeks cost £19,000, including the jewellery. He' had not the least idea where his companion was at the present time, neither had he any knowledge of what had become of the jewellery that he gave her. Since his return he had heard rumours that his companion had disposed of the jewellery, but that was mere gossip. The examination was concluded.