FARMER'S BANKRUPTCY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19860, 2 February 1928, Page 14

FARMER'S BANKRUPTCY

A DEFICIENCY OF £IOOO. COMPLAINT AGAINST STATE. TRANSACTIONS NEAR RAGLAN. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] HAMILTON, Wednesday A deficiency of £IOOO was shown in the schedule presented by James Donald Burgess, farmer, Raglan, at a meeting of creditors to-day. Debts totalled £1072, and assets were shown at £7O. Bankrupt, in his written statement, said he was 47 years of age and married. He had no children. He had been farming all his life and first owned a farm in 1908, his farming operations being conducted in the neighbourhood of Raglan. Since 1908 he had increased his holdings, which wero mostly native leases or purchases from natives of freeholds. In 1912 he acquired a lease of a block of native land on Raglan Harbour, opposite the wharf, called Horea. The lease would expire in 1930. Many years ago, continued bankrupt, lie mortgaged the lease to a bank to secure an overdi - aft, and in 1927 he was forced out of this place by the bank, which took possession. Bankrupt said he sold 500 acres to the Government for a soldier settlement. The price was £SOOO, and this was all applied in paying off mortgages. A few years later, when the slump came, the price of land dropped, and the Government Lands Department, who had resold the land and allowed the whole of the purchase money to remain on mortgage, made a claim upon him for misrepresentation and damages. " Claim Without Merit." The claim was, in his opinion, entirely without merit, but it was backed up by all the forces of the Government, by the purchasers of the land, and by popular opinion. His legal adviser counselled him to contest the claim, but. owing to the popular outcry against him, and to the stato of his wife's health, he settled the claim without consulting his solicitor on the matter. Ho settled the claim for the equivalent of £llOO in cash. This payment completely crippled him. Until then he was in comfortable circumstances. He had since failed to make headway and was compelled to file his' petition. Bankrupt gave a list of properties which he owned in January, 1927. He said he had mortgaged these for various amounts to meet the Government's claim. AH his stock were mortgaged and the bank got judgment against him for £996. He realised on the stock but still owed the bill of sale holder some hundreds of pounds. He left Horea in July, 1927, and since then ho and his wife had lived with relatives. Ho had practically no assets and could make no offer to his creditors. He attributed his bankruptcy to what he de scribed was the Government's exorbitant ciaim, and to the fall in land values. Comment by Assignee. In answer to the official assignee, Mr. J, H. Robertson, bankrupt said he did not think the Government had a fair claim against him. He did not give the Government £llOO in cash. He gave land valued at that price, except for his indebtedness to a stock firm his position was sound in 1925. It was not until 1927 that he first failed to meet his interest accounts. He notified his creditors in May, 1927, that he could not pay his debts. Sheep he lort would be worth about £9OO. The official assignee said bankrupt's statement that he had been robbed by the Government of £llOO could not go unchallenged. He had received £SOOO for the property and had to refund equity to the value of £llOO. A creditor stated that the drop in land values had contributed to bankrupt's failure, and that he had been a fair worker. He had done the best ho could. Another creditor said bankrupt had not been as frank with his firm as he might have been. A motion that bankrupt's discharge be facilitated was carried.