BANKRUPT GUMBROKER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15562, 20 March 1914, Page 4

BANKRUPT GUMBROKER

AFFAIRS OF H. WHI STANCE. ANOTHER FIEM'S POSITION. — >H LENGTHY EXAMINATION.- "' •" Further evidence concerning the affairs A of H. Whistance, a bankrupt gumbroker 4 was given to the creditors at a meeting i conducted by the official assignee, Mr. W. S. Fisher, yesterday. Whistance, in his original statement, alleged that he was em- '' ployed by Messrs. S. Winterbourne and Company to buy gum for the firm at a salary of £250 but that he was to keep his connection "with the firm unknown. The firm, he said, had guaranteed his ac- ■ count at the National Bank up to £1000. The examination of John Frederick Montague, one of the representatives of S. Winterbourne and Company, was continued. He stated that the last payment to Whistance by his firm was msde almost contemporaneously with the sending of the letter to the bank cancelling the guarantee. He knew at the time he signed Whistance's last cheque of £600 odd that it had gone to the credit of the latter's account. The last gum bought by his firm from the bankrupt was mainly, he believed, consignment gum, but he was not aware that had bankruptcy proceedings been taken while that gum was in Whistance's hands it would not have been included among his assets, but would have been returned to the con-* signors. Possibly it occurred to him, when he made the last payment to Whistance and stopped the guarantee almost contemporaneously, that the loss would fall upon the consignors of the gums Mr. Holmden, who appeared on behalf of Mr. Montague, wished to have read a letter written by Montague, to the official assignee, in which Montague set forth his version of Whistance's connection with the firm of Winterbourne and Company. The official assignee, however, refused to allow such a procedure at that stage, as it would not be in accoidance with the rules of evidence. Under examination by Mr. Holmden, Mr. Montague said that "his firm was the biggest creditor in the estate, the account against Whistance being about £630. He resented the fact that in his examination by the representatives of the creditors he had been treated as if all the bankrupt's misdeeds had been his own. Continuing, he said that about March or April of last. year Whistance came to him and said lie had resigned from Messrs. 1,. D. Nathan and Company. Mr. Meers, the London principal of S. Winterbourne and Companv, then said that, unless he entered business as a broker he would find him a position. Whistance did set up as a broker on his own account, and had never been employed by Winterbourne and Company to buy gum. Winterbourne and Companv, however, guaranteed the bankrupt's account late in May or early in June, in the first instance for £500, and later, up to £1000, while still late* there was a temporary guarantee for another £500. This lacking was provided os the condition that he acted solely as a broker. Under, an agreement entered into with Whistance. Winterbourne and Company had the right to have the former's books inspected and audited once a. month, but the auditor appointed had got no satisfaction. The auditor had been promised repeatedly that the books would be ready for his perusal,*, but the promises had all been broken.

The meeting at this stage was adjourned until Monday at 2.30 p.m.