DEBTORS IN TROUBLE

Southland Times, Issue 21073, 3 May 1930, Page 6

DEBTORS IN TROUBLE

EXISTED ON CRAYFISH AND BREAD. (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, May 2. That he had denied hintself the ordinary necessaries of life and had lived on crayfish and bread in order to support his people in Italy was the story told in the Magistrate's Court by a young Italian who appeared before the Magistrate on a judgment summons for £3B 19/-. The Magistrate said he would make an order. “Unless,” he said, addressing the defendant, “you can live on less than 30/weekly vo’u had better send a little less than £3 "weekly to Italy. In the meantime your creditors in New Zealand must be paid. I will make an order that the debt be paid at the rate of 10/- weekly.” Lived in “Morgue." A house which he described as a “morgue,” and an invalid wife were reasons advanced by a waterside worker for his getting into debt, when he appeared before the Magistrate on a judgment summons for £2O 17/-. Defendant said his average earnings were £5 per week, and he paid £2 5/- for rent. “I took the house on the condition that it was warm and dry, he said. Counsel: “Was it?” Defendant (emphatically): “No. We were frozen out, blown out, and washed out. It is not a house—it is a morgue.” Defendant was ordered to discharge the debt at the rate of £1 per month.