Build, Borrow And Bust

NZ Truth, Issue 935, 27 October 1923, Page 6

Build, Borrow And Bust

Housing Speculator Smacked.

(Prom "Truth's" Auckland Rep.)

• It is woiMerful how sanguine some bankrupt debtors are, and m what an optimistic light they regard their assets. ■■■• Also 'tis wonderful how some of thehi-ever get credit from trusting traders with which to go speculating. There was Daniel Patrick Hall, for instance. Daniel wasn't a builder, but he 'thought, he knew all about it, and proceeded to make a fortune m building on' a capital of £250. He first bought land at Whakatane on low deposit apparently, and subdivided It No one would buy the sections, but this " notwithstanding he commenced to ■ build dwellings on them himself, his faith m fortune undimmed. Some of the houses were sold, • but also on the low deposit plan by which he received very little cash, and he had to mortgage each place heavily. Then dime disaster, for he found himself ufiablo tb' dispose of several of the houses; and his creditors brought him down with a crash.

Hall explained all thlp to the Official Assignee at Auckland, but he said that although his debts were over £,2000 his assets were worth over £1400 more than that amount. His valuations were reasonable, he declared, and he had based them on actual expenditure of the properties. "Then your calculations are of little use to your credit - crs," said the Official Assignee. "You crin't compute your assets on that busls." The Official Assignee then infprmed'the creditors (there were only two present at the meeting) that ho feared that owing to the heavy mortgages there was little hope of realising on any of the properties, and he reckoned they ought to accept 5s m the £1 for the assets— if they could find anybody to get it for them. •"Speculation of the kind bankrupt has indulged m Is precisely of the kind that has been responsible for the fluctuation m land values ho complains of," added the Assignee, who will seek for the best way to try and obtain something for the creditors out of Hall's speculation.