BANKRUPTCY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9696, 4 March 1910, Page 5

BANKRUPTCY.

A meeting in the bankrupt estate of W, H. Morrow, carrier, Feilding, was held yesterday. PresentMr Q. J. Scott, D.0.A., Mr J. Graham representing the only secured creditor, Mrs Annie Jacobsen, and Mr A. M. Ouglov for bankrupt. The foliowing statement was put in Unsecured creditors Barraud & Abraham £l3 10a 3d, J. Uarragh £9 lls 4d„ T. G. Lennox £1 17s 6d, Brain well Bros, £3 3s 9d, Ratcliff Land Agency £4 os 6d, Feilding Borough Oounoil £2l 2s (Id. Obristohnroh —H. Matson & Co. £9, Uses & Evans £l9 Ha 6d, ;B. L. Lane £2O 18s, F. D. Kestevea £7O, H. Maue & Co. £3 19s; total £166 9a 4d. Secured creditor Annie Jacobsen £762 3s 9d. Assets—Book debts £S* 13s 3d, furniture £l6, estimated value of security £1000; estimated surplus—£92l 9s 2d. Bankrupt in his statement said : la April ,1909, I was a hotelkeeper and waa induced to exchange the lease of the hotel at Ohristchnrcb for the carrying and advertising business of Mr J. Jacobsen together with the whole of the plant and freehold property situate in Bowen street, Feeding. He described the business which he said was supposed to have a turnover of not less than £7l per month; the price being £l5O0 —£750 to remain on mortgage to Mrs Jacobsen for five years at per cent. He said the business did not come up to representation. Another part of the business was the bill posting and advertising for all the theatrical companies together with the cartage to and from the hall and station. This had been done by Jacobsen’s brother and for the first fonr months averaged £3 per week. About this time Jacobsen's brother left me and worked in opposition and the Drill Hall people erected hoardings of their own and aa the hall waa booked making my boards useless. Business went from bad to worse, and there were far too many carriers for the requirements of the town the oonequeaoa being that the work is being done by some of them at prices that cannot possibly pay wages. For the last three months I have held on trying to find a purchaser at anything over the mortgage but found it Impossible to do so as there were no buyer? witn any cash and at the finish I was compelled to file on account of one of my creditors issuing a distress warrant. Bankrupt concluded that he had a wife and three children and bad worked hard all his life, for the past four years in the hotel business in Spreydon, Christchurch, and for sixteen years previous to that in the oarrrying business in Ohristohnroh, yet through this Feilding venture was practically penniless. The only reason for his present position was Shat values of property and business in Feilding had fallen considerably, the slump in business all round, particularly in the carrying, and the loss of the bill posting and advertising. To Mr Graham : The turnover was stated to be £7l per month but witness bad never made more than half of that. He bad perused Jacobsen’s books before purchasing but they did not give him a fair idea of the takings as the disbursements for'freight, etc., were so large. As there were not sufficient creditors present to pass a resolution the meeting was adjourned sine die.