MEETING OF CREDITORS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1899, 26 June 1890, Page 11

MEETING OF CREDITORS.

Re T. Lindsay. An adjourned meeting of creditors in the estate of Thomas Lindsay, of Falmerßton, stock dealer, was held at the official assignee's office on Thursday afternoon. There were eight creditors present. Mr J. G. Findlay, of Falmerston, appeared for bankrupt. The Assignee stated that bankrupt was still very ill, and he had been quite unable to examine him. Messrs Stout and Mondy had sent him a letter questioning the sale of the mare Rub?, arid asking him to cancel the sale. The mure was said to belong to Mr M'Q-hie, who had sent him a statement concerning tho matter. This statement was read, and portions of it were contradicted by Mr J, Allan, of St Kilda. A discussion about the horses ensued, bufc nothing definite was decided. Mr Firtdlny said thnt hauknipt's position In respect to the horses wa3 t,hii : H» kept them as a i=tock dealer more than as a racing man : that an arrangement wae made whereby he wxs to be relieved of all cost, of keeping them ; th;\fc those who ran the horses were fo j,tv sill rhe expenses out of winninas ; that Mr M''4hie had con r I of file horses j and that he (bankrupt) was to be kept indemnified against any lobi. The Assignee said that Mr Piudlay had interviewed bankrupt, and had taltei a sl.uemeut from him which the creditors nifg''t hear. Mr Donald Reid thought it was to a certain extent unsatisfactory to hi ar a ntntemmit obtainert through Mr Findlay, as be represented bankrupt. The creditors might get one from him through their own solicitor. Mr Findlay went on fo read (he statement which ; he said bankrupt made to him on Thursday night. From this statement it appeared that baukrupt went into business three and a half years ago, at which time his wife had fotne money left to her, and it was with part of this that bankrupt began businesi. At the end of the first year he found lie j had made a profit of about £300, and ab the end of the second he found that while be had made nothing

he had lost nothing. His losses began from 18 months ago. In January 1889 he bought 1800 head of sheep at Lawrence at 12s eaoh. He sold 600 of them a fortnight later at 12s 9d, and lost 3d on each one, as he had to pay the driving, commission, and feeding fees. The balance of the sheep were taken to Palmerston, but he could not find a buyer then, and was compelled to keep 500 of them on a section at Palraerston all the winter. He kept them until after shearing, and sold them at Balolutha through the Farmers' Agency Company. They were sold at 6s 9d. There was only a poor clip, the return! from the wool paying not more than the cost of p&sture and the wages of a man to look alter them. On these 600 he had to pay driving fees from Palmer* eton to Dunedin and from Dunedin to Balclntha, besides commission and other expenses. The remaining 709 he kept at Shag Point hill, and sold them to a man named Mitchell, at Waimnte, for 10s each, thus making a heavy loss by them. The whole transaction of the 1800 sheep resulted In a loss of about £400. He next bought a lot of 1800 hoggets from Garden Watson, Oamaru, at the beginning of last winter, paying 6s 6d for 800, 8s 6d for 600, and 10» 6d for 400. They were kept at Oamaru for three monthß as he was unable to geta buyer for them, and all that time he employed a man to look after them. He sold 300 to Mr Fraser, of Moonlight, at 8s 6d, and the remainder at la lees than he paid for them. On this transaction he lost £150. His next loss was last November, and it was a very serious one A man named Lees came to him representing that he waa bujing wool largely and that he was being financed by tho Farmers Agency Company. Bankrupt subBaquontly saw Mr Grindlcy, of that compauy, and spoke to him about Lees, and was informed by Mr Grindley, so bankrupt stated, that Lees was all right. Less said to bankrupt that he would'give him lOd'per 1b for fleece wool, 8d for bellies, and'4d for locks. He also said he was giving that for all the wool he couia get in the district. Bankrupt relied on Lees' statement and bought wool, pa] ing good prices for it as he believed he could sell it at a profit. He sent 100 bales to Dunedin and got between 8d and 9^d for it. It turned out, however, that Lees was a man of straw and did not Keep his bargain, and was, in fact, not worth being compelled to Keep it. It aiao came out that the company were not prepared to finance him •.tall. Mr Grindley said the true position was that Lindsay met Lees at Palmerston and sold wool to him, and subsequently came to see him (the speaker), when he told him he did not think Lees was any good, and that he would not finance him. Mr Findlay, continuing bankrupt's statement, said that bankrupt stated that he could have sold the wool at a decent profit to several other buyers if it had not been for this arrangement with Lees, the result of which was that he lost 2d per 1b on the whole quantity, or about JB3OO on the transaction. Then, also in November, he bought 3500 sheep from Mr Grant, of Timaru, paying from 12s 6d to 13s 9d for the lot. He was influenced in buying these mainly by the renreientatlons made by Lees. They were shorn at Palmereton, and were then taken to Balolutha and sold. After allowing fov ihe value of the fleeces he found he had lost le on eaoh sheep, or a sum of £175. In January of this year he bought COOO sheep in the Palmerston distriot and the dis(rict north of that, paying from 8s 2d to 9s Od for them. He drove them to Balolutha, and had to sell 4500 of them there, about six weeks after he bought them, for from 6s to 8s 6d, and that loss was exclusive of the usual commission and expenses. He lost £130 on these 4500. The balance of 1500 he kept at Balclutha for a time, and then sold 600 at a loss of Is Oil and 900 at a loss of 6d. besides which he had to pay expenses. On that part of tho transaction he loßt £100. About the date of Alexander Munro's eale in Maroh ho bought 4000 sheep from sellers in the Palmerston district, and drove all that number, excepting 500, to Balolutha. They cost him between 4s Od and 5s 6d each. The lung worm got into them and many of them died on their way South. For (.hose that lived he got less than he paid for them. He kept 500 at Palmerston, and many of them died, the remainder, about 350, being sold by the official assignee. On that transaction he lost about £230. A lot that he bought from Mr Donald Heid he took to Balolutha and sold at a loss, and another lot, of 500 or 600, was also sent to Balflutha and sold. These sales took place through the Farmers' Agency Company. Another 600 he got from Mr Heid he sold to Mr M'Kenzie, of Balclutha, and made a profit of la per head. A number of merinos he sent to the boiling down. The bulk of the proceeds of theiie sales went to the Farmers' Agency Company and Mr Everest, in part reduction of their claims. Then, last January bankrupt bought 100 head of cattle, and sold them at Oamaru. He paid £8 a head for 10, and £3 a head for the remainder, but he lost £60 by them. These represented the principal loa6esof the bankrupt. There were a number of minor losses suffered during the last 18 months, and any profits he made wero more than swamped by the losses on the small transactions. In fact, last year's business was a series of disasters, when it came to an end Bankrupt said himself that his treatment of Mr Donall Reid was perhaps not fair and pioper, bvit he was driven through pressure from other quarters to use the funds arising from the sale of sheep he had bought from Mr Heid to satisfy the more claimant creditors. With regard to the horses, he wished it to be understood he did not enter upon the buying of the horses with any idea of being a racing man. He never paid a sixpence for keep, but simply the money for the purchase and gave them to M'Ghie to use. He wbb to be Indemnified against any loss for their keep. Moreover, he had not all his life put more than £1 on a horse, and any imputations of his having lost money in that way were' unfounded. He had lost about £100 on Neul.horn shares The properties he bought at Palmerston with their improvements cost him about £670, and the bank had a claim on them for £430. He said that these properties had depreciated )n value by about £150 or £200. All the losses he had mentioned then accounted for about £2200, bufc they wero only the principal ones. The Assignee said he had no doubt tbe creditors were obliged to Mr Findlay for giving them the statement, but It was, of course, to a certain extent unsatisfactory, and they must examine tho bankrupt themselves as soon as possible. Mr Findlay stated that bankrupt was as anxious as anyone to make bis statement; so far, only one side of the matter had been made public. In answer to a question, Mr Lindsay said that bankrupt no doubt had an action agrtinst Leas, but it would be no use proceeding against him, as he had nothing. Mr Eeid moved—" That the assignee be authorised to employ such assistance as he considers necessary in investigating the estate." Mr Grindley seconded the motion, which wsb carried. Mr Eeid remarked that there was, of course, a question as to whether there had been any fraudulent preference. The Assignee : That is so. The meeting was then further adjourned for a fortnight.