STOREKEEPER FAILS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18761, 15 July 1924, Page 9

STOREKEEPER FAILS.

SURPLUS OF ASSETS SHOWN.

RENT ALLEGEDLY TOO HIGH.

I p A meeting of creditors in the estate oi s Leslie W. Simmons, storekeeper, of Block- ; house Bay, was held yesterday at the ! office of the official assignee, Mr. W. S. ■ Fisher. j The amount due to unsecured creditors was shown to be £189 10s Id, and to sei cured creditors £955, the estimated value |of securities being £1600. The assets, inj eluding £645 sarplus from securities, were | valued at £745 15s, leaving a nominal j surplus of £556 4s lid. I Bankrupt stated that after returning j from the war in 1919, he acted as manager 'of a store-in Morrinsville. Later, for health reasons, he came to Auckland and took over a business in Dominion Road, which was represented to be making a net profit of from £6 to £8 a week. It was !a counter trade business and there were no books, bankrupt alleged, to aid in investigation. The sum of £275 was paid for the business, bankrupt entering into a lease, at .£4 a week rent. After a month's occupancy, he found that he was losing at the rate of about £2 a week. In i no week ware the takings sufficient to pay the rent after stock had been replenished. He made every effort to dispose of the business but without success, the rent being considered too high. j In April, 1923, bankrupt's wife purchased a business at Blockhouse Bay, paying £155 in cash. This business paid well. Bankrupt had approached the owner of fho Dominion Road property on several occasions with a view to obtaining some reduction in rent, but the latter had refused to accept any compromise, or to release him from the lease. In March last he was served with a bankruptcy notice, and was compelled to file. Rent had been paid up to December 18, when bankrupt lejft the property and : went to Blockhouse Bay. His money was exhausted within two months after start--1 ing the Dominion Road business and he ' could not have carried on but for money advanced by his wife. All creditors had been paid up to the time of leaving Do- | minion Road; bankrupt was solvent at that time, and had the owner agreed to a reduction of rent in accordance with the actual takings of the business, he would not have hyen so heavily crippled financially. The point was emphasised by bankrupt's solicitor, who stated that there were plenty of assets in tho estate, and bankrupt had been pushed by this one creditor throughout. There was only one other creditor. _. , . , . Examined by the official assignee, bankrupt stated that not one penny of the takineo from the Dominion Road business had gone into the Blockhouse Bay property. The meeting was adjourned in order that arrangejnents might be made for realising the assets.