LOSS ON RESTAURANT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16268, 29 June 1916, Page 5

LOSS ON RESTAURANT.

PROPRIETOR'S LIABILITIES.

A deficiency of £459 Is 4d is shown in the schedule furnished by William J. Sneller, restaurant proprietor, to the official assignee in bankruptcy. The first meeting of creditors in the estate will be held this afternoon.

The bankrupt states that his liabilities to unsecured creditors amount to £511 Is 4d and to secured creditors to £78. The value of the security is estimated at £130, and the only asset in the estate is the surplus of this security above the liability. He started business in Shortland Street in July, 1913, expending the whole of his capital, £175, in fitting and furnishing the rooms. In the following March he opened an upstairs room, borrowing £120 on a bill-of-sale to furnish it. The rent was £27 10s per month, but in October, 1915, it was reduced to £20. He had already fallen behind with the payments for rent from the middle of that year. Owing to the falling off of business since the war he had closed the upstairs room, dispensed with a cook, and had gone into the kitchen himself.

Bankrupt states that during the last half-year he had been unable to pay his rent in full, but otherwise had not fallen much behind. The expenses of running the business had latterly been £23 a week. The cash takings in April, 1916, were £105 12s 2d, in May £102 14s 7d, and from June 1 to 17 they were £58 6s. During the same period he had drawn for himself £10 lis in April, £8 5s in May, and £7 14s 6d in June. He had also been endeavouring to pay off private debts, amounting to £5 10s a week in all. Bankrupt added that owing to the falling off in business, and the high prices of commodities, the cost of running the business had been too great.