BANKRUPT'S CREDULITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15753, 30 October 1914, Page 5

BANKRUPT'S CREDULITY

TRANSACTIONS WITH NATIVE.

CASE FOR HIGHER COURT.

The official assignee. Mr. W. S. Fisher, expressed surprise yesterday at the credulity of Williams Stubbings Wilkinson, who was under examination in connection with bankruptcy proceedings. " What is your age, Wilkinson?" he asked at thfl close of the examination. "Sixty-four," wat the reply. "Well, then, you 'are old enough to know better," said Mr. Fisher.

Bankrupt, in his sworn statement, showed, his liabilities to be £558 13s 3d, and his aesets to be £705. Analysis, however, proved that the assets, with the exception of £5 worth of tools, were of little value. They were represented by a property, consisting of a piece of land and a house, valued by bankrupt at £500. situated at Opotiki, and £200 owing by a Maori named Pekama Te Rua. It was discovered that the property belonged to l'e Rua, but a transfer of it was made to Wilkinson many months ago, as consideration for the backing of a bill for £250. Bankrupt, it was elicited, had failed to Tut the transfer before the Native Land ■Court within six months of its execution, and, for this reason, the official assignee declared that it was "not worth a brass farthing," now. Asked why he did not put the transfer through before, bankrupt said that he had every confidence in To Rua. In cross-examination, Wilkinson stated that ho had not really had the transfer to put through; it was in the {-ossession of Messrs. Levien and Abbott, Te Rua's sclicitors.

Bankrupt was questioned by .Mr. Schnauer's representative Mr. Schnauer being the person in whose favour the £260 promissory note had been made out —as to his reasons for backing the note. " How did you propose to pay the iji.<Mj when the bill matured?" bankrupt was asked. " Were you simply living in nopes of getting the transfer through and then being able to finance upon the property? If so, it was very unfair to Mr. Schnauer. You had nothing, and deceived him."

Wilkinson, whose petition was filed as a result of achnauer securing a judgment foi £mJ7 17s 3d, consequent upon a failure to meet the bill, denied any attempt to mislead anyone, and said that Schnauer tally understood the position from the first. He said that if Te Eua had been honest he would have obtained the property and been able to satisfy his creditors. As it was, Te Kua had played a. double game on him, and had lately given a gentleman named Hankins a mortgage over the Opotiki property as a consideration for cash advanced. Had bankrupt suspected Te Rua's honesty he would have put tee transfer through before the six mentis' interval, laid down by law, had expired. When he found out about the mortgage it was too late. "It looks very bad from a creditor's point of view," said Mr. Fisher, "I can't hold out any hope to you." I " Can't you get Te Rua's land?" asked | bankrupt. "Mo," said the official assignee, "it is inalienable. Surely you know that?" At this point a creditor gave it as his opinion that bankrupt deserved more sympathy than blame. "Not at all," said Mr. Fisher, "a man must bear the responsibility for acts of this kind. Apparently he has blindly trusted to this native, and under the circumstances he had no business to do it. It would be all very well for him to do it if he had property of his own, but not when he is drawing upon other people's property. Here is the result: he winds up in this Court £600 in debt, and has not a farthing for his creditors. He will have to bear the result of the whole facts being put before the judge. I would not support a motion of sympathy with him." The meeting then adjourned sine die. PETITIONS FILED. LOSSES ON A SAWMILL. The affairs of Augustus E. K. Person, will come before the Bankruptcy Court on Thursday next at 10 a.m. In his statement, Person sets his liabilities down at £269, the result of losses on a sawmill and on a farm. Against that, he claims as assets interests in the sawmill and in the farm, and says that he also owns two horses, valued at £28.

Upon a creditor's petition, a builder at MorriraviUe, named Arthur Cross, has been adjudicated a bankrupt.