SUPREME COURT.—Bankruptcy.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XI, Issue 3944, 3 July 1874, Page 3

SUPREME COURT.— Bankruptcy.

Thursday, July 2. [Before His Honor Sir G. A. Arney, Knight, Chief Justice ] The ordinary sittiug of the Court was held this morning. Re Samuels and Jacobsohn. —Mr. Ruddle applied for a declaration of complete execution of a deed of assignment of the estate for the benefit of creditors. The petitioners were traders at Tauranga. The deed was signed the 17th of June, filed the "22nd of June, gazetted the 23rd of the same month, and the list of creditors the same day. The usual notice to creditors, and of residence of the petitioners, had been tiled ; also affidavits of the number and value of creditors assenting to the deed.—His Honor granted the order declaring the deed completely executed. Re Simon' Dkvdkn. —This bankrupt came up a former Court-day for his last examination, and was put back to afford him an opportunity of furnishing additional information. —Mr. MaeCormick applied for a further adjournment.—Application granted. Re Thomas Milsk Machattie.-—Mr. MaeCormick applied for the bankrupt's dis-charge.—-His Honor : 1 have no recollection that Mr. Machattie has passed his final examination. There have been applications to take the estate out of bankruptcy, ami other forms of application. Is Mr. Machattie opposed.—Mr. MaeCormick : 1 believe not, your Honor. I am informed that notice of the application ha 3 been gazetted.-—Mr. Machattie : It is five years ago since the examination. The opposition referred to matters of account solely. There is none now. —His Honor: Wherever a proceeding of the Court should be presumed to operate oppressively, I w ill appoint a special day for hearing any application. 1 will name a special day for this case. Re George Thorne, jun.—Examination continued : On the Sth of January I paid £500 to Kinross and Co., for shipment of flax (on account) to New York. Tim flax was to be sold there. We had similar business viith them by the Corouilla (ship), and the ship Ayr. There had been a previous understanding that 1 should make these advances upon shipment. That was the ordinary course of business between us.—To the Court : I would not have received the business if Messrs. Kinross and Co. did not believe they were to liave an advance on account. 1 should not have received the flax if I had not made the advance.—Mr. MaeCormick : There was no agreement. There was no liability. Do you consider that you were in any respect under an obligation to Kinross and Company ? Tell us the legal obligation to begin with, then what moral obligation or obligation of usage.—Mr. Whitaker: He had made advances before in the course of business. It was a part of the business between them. The witness, upon receiving the flax upon the faith of existing practice, felt himself under an obligation to make the advance.—"Witness : When I received the flax upon the ordinary conditions I felt bound to advance. I rather sought the business. They would not have given me the business unless I advanced at low rates of exchange. I do not know that I overpaid Messrs. Kinross and Co. I had no statement from them fixing the value they put upon the flax. The bill of lading of the coasting vessel which brought it would disclose the quantity. If the flax had been sold at a loss in New York, and I had overpaid Messrs. Kinross and Co., they would have repaid us. I did nothing but what was customary.—Mr. MaeCormick : You took the risk. Was that the way you scattered your money about ? Do you know that the flax was unsaleable?— Witness: I know the market is much reduced.—■ The advance was made as soon as possible after the shipment. There is an entry in the books when we received the flax. 1 think it was as far back as September, and remained on hand some time, there being no ship direct for New York. The £500 was entered without date, but the dates have since been filled in. The reason why the dates were not tilled in was because the books were not completed. The dates were not filled in because we were turned out. We were not allowed. I did not send Fletcher to New South Wales in January. He did not make payments to anyone on my account. Not to anybody. He did not take away any money. I recollect his going away. I only knew that ho was going a day or two before he went. I endeavoured to detain him. I asked him to stay and help me to make up the books. This was the night before he left. I had nothing to do with his going, so that I did not take any interest in it. He did not take any cheques or drafts on my account; none whatever. There is no credit entered to Kinross and Co. for the flax in the ledger. The credit would come out of a different book. The receipt was recorded in the books some time before the advance. I estimated that it was safe to advance £300 upon the flax. The flax is inserted in the storeman's book when it came into our premises. The Messrs. Kinross would value their flax at the market price. The money (£500) came out of the eash-bo.v. The proceeds of. the bills endorsed to Mr. Howard—[Mr. MaeCormick : Sold to him.]—would go into the cash-box. I do not admit that the £500 to Kinross and Co. came out of the proceeds' of these bills. 1 deny that those bills were sacrificed.—Mr.

MacCormick : It was after your surrender, after you signed what you believed to be your submisssioii to adjudication, as a bankrupt. Was it not done to taka the money out of your estate ? —Witness : No ; it was done to pay Kinross and Co.— Mr. MacCormick: Did they not owe you £300 ?—Witness :In effectTthey did. I gare niy draft and security to the bank for the money, but the bank sent back the security. I was indebted to them for the £500 before they were indebted to me. My intention was to pay £500, and not to take the money out of the estate. It may have been —that was the effect of it. —Mr. MacCormick : It is impossible, your Honor, to look upon this transaction in any other light than as a mere gift.—Witness : I do not know why it waa not credited instead of cash paid. My intention was to pay Kinross and Co. Not at fthe expense of my estate in bankruptcy. That was the result, —it was not the intention. I can't say Kinross and Co. were to have paid the money to me into the "Union Bank. I never had an account in the Union Bank. That was not done to conceal. It was done, I suppose, that my firm would get the money. It was Kinross's bank. The money was for a concrete apparatus. It would not have concealed the payment to pay it into the Union Bank, for there is the letter-book to shew where it went to. The £500 was paid in cash. I instructed Fletcher to pay the money. It was not sent by draft, because Fletcher told me to pay Kinross with the £500. Ido not recollect that I had seen Kinross shortly before. It is not true that the money was paid long bsforc the 10th of January. Fletcher entered the money the day it was paid. Fletcher did not tell me he paid Kinross personally. He did not say whether he paid "some, one on acconnt of Kinross, but I was satisfied he had paid it. [Letter read from Messrs. Kinross, in which he announced the receipt of the concrete apparatus by the Merlin, ami stating they would have to deduct the ilax {£222) from the account sent them]. The money was not paid into the Union Bank by Messrs. Kinross. Witness did not instruct them to hold the money to his credit. There were eleven tons at £20, referred to in the letter. Messrs. Kinross in their account give me credit with £152. It might refer to a lot of native-dressed Ilax. I cannot say that the flax mentioned formed part of the Ilax shipped to New York. Our books shew the amount due by them to us. The balance could easily be made up. Ido not understand the account of Messrs. Kinross. 1 take our o\\ a books as correct. I have not examined the account as compared with our books. —Mr. MacCormick : Messrs. Kinross's letter is dated in March, 1874, after you sent them £500. Their account shews a credit balance in your favour of £152. They must have dealt in some way with that large advance of £500.—Witness : I cannot say what they might be. I have received no letter from them since the l!)th December. I never kept a stock-book. Merchants are not in the habit of keeping stock-books. We kept a consignment-book for consignments. The invoices were pasted in, and when the goods referred to were forwarded the invoice was removed, and the name of the place they had gone to was written across the page I made a valuation of the goods in the store. 1 estimated them at £3700. There is a list of the goods. It was in the trustee's possession. There would be other goods—goods afloat and powder in the Government magazine, which we would regard as stock. I cannot say what was the value of the powder. — Mr. MacCormick : I am instructed that there is a difference of £1100, as compared \rith the list of things sold by the trustee.—Witness : I do not remember making the list. I went round with Potter. He knew the value of the goods. I did not. The list 1 refer to was merely a memorandum made by myself in pencil. I cannot say when it was made. There is a portion of it written in ink. That estimate was taken in October, and is correct. I referred the trustee to it. 1 cannot say whether the £3700 includes consignment goods. It would include some goods shipped away. There was some hay. I cannot tell you all the goods. The store-book shews the receipt and delivery of every package.— Mr. MacCormick : Do you propose that we should go through every entry in your book for a considerable time past in order to find out what was in your store at a particular date '! 1 submit, your Honor, that the trustee's complaint is fully borne out, and that Mr. Thornc would not or could not from the state of his accounts give the information required of him.—-Witness: 1 remember the evidence I gave with respect to securities held by George Thorite, sen., belonging to me. He said if realised lie would curtail my cash credit by the amount. These securities were put down as assets until sold by my father. The A.S.N. shares have been sold. There is a letter in the trustee's possession to that effect. But my father does not say that he has sold the Pacific shares. The shares cost me £342 17s Gd. They are catered, I believe, as shares, or to venture, I forget which. There is an entry, £453, Pacific Insurance and other shares. Tlte entry includes mining shares, but not the A.S.N, shares. I regarded these as an asset on the 24th December. I have not heard that these shares are sold. I do not know that they are not sold. I know that the A.S.N.Co.'s shares have been sold. There is a letter from George Thorite, sen., to me, dated Ist June, this year, to the effect that he had sold the A.S.N. Co.'s shares, and put the proceeds against the cash credit bond. The sale was made under power of attorney. The letter states that "the same power will do to sell Pacific shares, which I have not done because their price is so low, although the price is advancing." [A very long -examination ensued upon the items of account between George Thornc, sen., and George Thorne, jun.] I cannot say that my father was indebted to me on the 3rd of January £G77. Ido not think so. —Mr. MacCormick : According to your ledger your father was debtor to the extent of £077 7s 9d.—Witness : That is provided he had not sold the A.S.N. Co.'s shares. The cash credit bond, £1081 3s Gd, is put down on the Sth January. After that he would appear as creditor. The i'soo to my father was paid out of cash received. It was done to pay him. It was not with the intention to pay him at the expense of other creditors. Mr. George Thornc, sen., gives me credit for it as "£SOO balance," on the 15th January. 1 did not write to him to say 1 had been adjudicated bankrupt. I think I told him that the Bank of New South Wales weredrivingme there. It was hardly a balance of an ordinary trading account. I scut £2000, and also drew a draft on Sydney. It was done to pay the bank. The cheques were on the bank at Sydney, which held a mortgage upon the I-alla Rookh brig. Then they had my father's cash credit bond. They would accordingly remit to the credit of "my cash account here.—Mr. MacCormick asked that this particular part of the examination should stand over, as he eould not make the two accounts agree. The Court rose at half-past four o'clock.