BANKRUPT'S BID

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19038, 11 June 1936, Page 7

BANKRUPT'S BID

TO RETRIEVE POSITION SUMS LOST AT RACES SYDNEY, May 21. In public examination before the Registrar in Bankruptcy, Mr. Kearney, yesterday. John Wright Ward said that on February 22 last he lost £250 in three lets al Victoria Park racecourse, in r desperate attempt to retrieve his ,r !nan rial position. Ward; who traded as Ward and Son selling furniture manufacturers-' supplies. had liabilities of £3?27 owing to 57 till secured creditors when his estate wu sequestrated on May 21. Examined" b-, the Official Receiver (Mr. Nefte), he said thai his household expenses had been £9 a week. He had set down his. personal expenses at £IC a week, but Ids net personal expenses would, be less. He had entertained a great deal, and had been a racing man for 30 years. He had once lost £4OO in one day. In lie last. 13 months he had experienced more losses than gains. He thought punters were always unlucky. Questioned as to his system of placing bets, Ward said that he followed the monev <ii the big punters. Shortly before February 13 his bank account had been garnish'eed. On that day and (he following day he had drawn, out more than .11300. '"1 made up my. mind to givo it a fly. If I had won my creditors would have been paid." he said. On March 21 he had put £4O on a horse at Rosehill, and again lost. Ward said that lie had left all the book-keeping of his business to his ac-

countarite/ who. had lost the. hooks. "1 thought that I had one of the- ino.sl wonderful little businesses in Sydney." He estimated the turnover at about £24.000. Mr. Neite "said that the turnover had been computed from Ward's sales journal at £19,000. Income tax returns, which Ward said were prepared by his accountant, showed th:>l his taxable income for 1934-35 was £495. and for the two years prior to that nil. Mr. Nette complained to the registrar that the bankrupt was deliberately refusing to give information. The exam-