Untitled

Otago Witness, Issue 3803, 1 February 1927, Page 20

had been buying country lands in the Taranaki and Auofland districts, farming and improving them and then disposing of the properties. Many places that passed through his hands had proved to be splendid properties, and were now turning out considerable quantities of produce. In 1918 the properties and mortgages he held were valued for trustee purposes at prices showing ..him to have over £30,000 worth of solid value. At that time he considered that, with so many incidents tending to force land far above its real value, a slump was bound to occur. He then endeavoured to realise for cash in whatever direction he could in order to get out of the contingent liabilities. Me offered in cases where his name was on the titles, subject to mortgages, to re-finance the owners free of cost. Several owners of properties accepted the offer and that had reduced the present liabilities considerably. In 1915 he purchased a property from the Public Trustee in the Nelson district, and there was left on a first charge about £1350 to one Charles Chaytor, whose estate was in the hands of the Public Trustee. He spent about £2OOO in improvements, and sold it to one Grant three years afterwards. The amount became due and the Public Trustee, acting for Chaytor’s staff, agreed with Grant _if he would pay an extra half per cent, interest the mortgage could run on for some years. After the Public Trustee found that Grant was getting into arrears, and then attempted to re-establish bankrupt’s liability and sued him for the interest. The reserved judgment went against him. This judgment was quickly followed by bankruptcy proceedings, and he had the choice of either- signing a fresh contract admitting the liability or being forced unto bankruptcy. He had a large number of unsecured creditors, who had given him substantial credit on account of his strong financial position prior to the slump. He had called a meeting of his creditors and so staved off bankruptcy by signing the agreement with the Public Trustee, and, in the interim between then and now, had brought the position to that shown in his statement of assets and liabilities. There were now only two unsecured creditors. One was for a balance of a secured debt. The secured debt was £9OOO, the balance being under £4OO. The other unsecured creditor was for an account that had been in dispute for several years. The North Auckland place, which he had put in at £14,000, was sold at over £30,000. There were 7000 acres, and it would not fetch £1 per acre to-day. It was a place that was bought from him by a syndicate which was formed into a limtied liability company. The company lost all iis money during the slump and went into l.quidation throwing the liability back upon him. He was badly caught by the slump. . He declined several offers for - the Taranaki place during the boom years, but they' were all easy term offers, and he felt that the risk of the property being landed back on his hands was too great with a slump looming ahead. The two properties that had come back were only lightly mortgaged in proportion to their value as it stood at the time of the sale in each case. As all farm assets were so hopelessly unsaleable on the present market it seemed impossible to suggest any offer that would assist the creditors.