A BANKRUPT'S STATEMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15482, 13 December 1913, Page 5

A BANKRUPT'S STATEMENT

COMMENT BY ASSIGNEE. AFFAIRS OF FRANK HARRIS. A meeting was held yesterday of the creditors of Frank Harris, monumental mason, of Auckland, who recently filed a petition in bankruptcy in order, his statement said, " to prevent a sacrifice of part of my assets, namely, my residence, under forced salo to satisfy a Supreme Court judgment for £1000, together with interest and costs." The statement set the total debts down •at £21.676 5s 10d,- and the assets as £27.305 6s, leaving a surplus of £5629 0s 2d. Of the debts, £13,801 5s lOd was owing to unsecured creditors', and other liabilities amounted to £7875. A sum of £1583 17s 6d was due to secured creditors. The estimated value of securities was £1850. and there was left a surplus from securities in tho hands of secured creditors of £266 2s 6d. Mr. A. L. Denniston appeared for the bankrupt. Mr. H. P. Richmond for Wra. Nelson, Hawke's Bay, and Mr. R. L. Zvman for Frank Harris and Co., Ltd. The assignee (Mr. W. S. Fisher) sajd that if a perusal of the statement led creditors to expect a substantial dividend from the estate be was afraid they would be very much mistaken. If the statement was intended to show what had become of the money which had passed through Mr. Harris's hands it was very well, but if it was intended to show (as a statement should) how the estate would turn out, it did not do so. He had come to the conclusion that the assets in the schedule would be very little indeed, or almost nothing. Mr. Denniston said the statement was an absolutely honest one, with no intention to deceive either the official assignee or creditors. On the face of it the statement might seem a somewhat extraordinary one, but when all the facts were fully put forward it woidd be seen that there was a great deal more in it than a simple balance-sheet disclosed. The bankrupt had gone to great trouble to put all ; the facte out fully. As the meeting was likely to be adjourned he wanted to pre- | vent" any impression getting abroad that ; it was anything in the way of a wrongful statement. It set out the bankrupt's posi- j tion, and when the right time came he would show it. I It was resolved that Mr. Richmond bo ] associated with the assignee to consider \ the best method of dealing with the I estate's interest in the Remuera property, > and the meeting was then adjourned till 1 Fridav, January 23, the assignee in the i meantime to refrain from realising the assets other than the interest in the ! Remuera property and the stock-in-trade ' thereon. The reason for the adjournment was the poor attendance of creditors, due partly to the Southern creditors having I had very short notice. I