FORTUNES WON AND LOST.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 120, 18 May 1912, Page 2

FORTUNES WON AND LOST.

TREASURE HUNTER AND

PEARL FISHER

ADVENTURES OF A DEBTOR

Seldom outside the pages of romance does on© encounter a career so crowdtcJ with adventure as that of a debtor whose ristory was, detailed in London to a meeting of creditors.

Donald Francis Stuart-Setan, of Mall Road. Hammersmith, was trained for the army. But he failed in his examination. He read for the bar in - Canada, and^ was never called. Finally ho went cattle and horse ranching i?i Montona, U.S.A.

That, the- chairman explained, was all fifteen or sixteen years ago. He had come of age a few years before, and then fortune smiled. His guardian haudpd him £25,000. The money had been left in trust for him. After about a year in London the debtor had run through the greater part of. bis fortune. He Avent to Canada, taking with him about £7000—ail that wdj* left of his fortune.

Ho bought for £5000 a share m a ranch, bttb eighteen months to two years later hu sold put at a loss, receiving £1200. About the sanie time lies purchased a share in the Gf'een River "Valley mining claim, and out of tiiat he made a profit of some £'fcoo. In addition ho jeceived as his share of the sale a sum of £1000. He next j-atiched again—for eleven months^—at El Paso, Now Mexico. Moro than once in his life the debtor has lost all his money in some daring venture. One of the most romantic of these was the fitting-out of an expedition for a treasure hunt at Yucatan, Central America. The expedition lasted for five months. At the end of that time he drifted to New Orleans with no means whatever. 5 ■ :

He then tried pearl-fishing. He mailed to Australia, Jind was engaged ■for tAvo months, jointly with another person, in pearl-fishing and dredging on some islands north of the Caroline Islands. He afterwards made his way to San Francisco, and received the sum of £6000 as his share of the pearls found. A further stroke of fortune came his way. With that money he acquired shares in the Red Star Mining Company, and cleared in a few days £11,000. Then he returned to, revolution. He ■went- to New York, and put _ £9000 into an expedition having as its object a revolution in Honduras. In that venture, however, he lost his money. In IS9G, he further stated, he was in Matabeleland,. and cleared about £7000 in trading. There he joined the BulaAvayo field force. He afterwards went to Angola, where lie Avas again engaged in trade, making about £1500, "but in 1898 he was compelled to return, to England in consequence of illness. ■

He was. houever, in the same year able to go to Canada again. He bought for £2000 some land at "Vancouver, but in. the following year was- back in England again with a batch of options., which he sold more or less at a profit. In the years 1901-4 ho was backwards and forwards between England and Canada, with one or two visits to Australia • thrown- in, making money out of further deals in options. In 1904, after another deal m land in Vancouver, tho debtor took to the writing of short stories, and after worked a- betting system on which he lost £1500.

In February, 1909, he began to develop his land at Vancouver, which was becoming of value by reason of its timber. The debtor had roughly estimated his liabilties at £4200, and disclosed no assets of any value.

He did not appear in court, and a resolution, for the appointment of a trustee was declared not carried.

Tho matter was thus left in the hands of the Official Receiver.