A BUSINESS FAILURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19447, 1 October 1926, Page 17

A BUSINESS FAILURE.

MAIL CONTRACTOR'S DEBTS.

LOSSES BY OTHER VENTURES

A meeting of creditors in the bankrupt estate of Charles Leonard Gillies, formerly a mail contractor at Raurimu, was held yesterday. The deputy Official Assignee, Mr. G. X. Morris, presided. Bankruptfwas represented by Mr. Goldwater and there was only a small attendance of creditors. The schedule showed that £484 was owing to unsecured creditors and that the assets amounted to £23, consisting entirely of book debts. The deficiency was £46 L Bankrupt said he was engaged in buying motor-cars in tha Waimarino and Taupo districts on his return from the war and in 1922, when he'had a capital of £267, lie purchased a mail contract between Raurimu and Kaitiki for £l5O, of which he paid £6O in cash. He bought a motor-truck for £737, for •''which he paid £137 cash, the balance being covered by a promissory note. There was some talk later of the boats on tho Wanganui River being taken off at tho Taumarunui end and he anticipated that tourists would have to come to the railhead by the route he was running on. Acting on this assumption he took over the Railway Boarding "House and Refreshment rooms at Raurimu, but his expectation regarding the removal of tho river boats was not realised. Ho did not get sufficient boarders to make the house pay and was obliged to sub-let it. Moreover, the Railway Department took over the refreshment rooms at Taumarunui and improved them, with the result that his takings at the Raurimu rooms fell off. Meanwhile the car and motor-truck services were not paying their way, owing, said bankrupt, to tho bad state of the roads, competition and repairs io his vehicles, which rendered it necessary to tako them off the road'-fpr some periods and hire other vehicles as substitutes He even had to use pack horses to carry the mails, so impassable was the state of tho roads *in winter. Eventualy he was obliged to surrender his cars and remove to Taumarunui, where he drove a bus and conducted a boarding house, but this venture was also unsuccessful. In 1925 he came to Auckland and had been driving a bus at a wage of £5 a week ever since. Ho had a wife and two children to support and could make no offer to his creditors. The Deputy Assignee: Ho would probably have come out all right if lie had stuck to tho motor business, hut ho made the mistake of taking over the boarding house. However, it was a reasonable risk to take.. There is no doubt, about it, ho has had a lot of bad luck. A Creditor: I think we may take it that the other creditors have stayed away becauso they think likewise. As there was not a quorum the meeting lapsed.