BANKRUPTCY OF A LABOURER

Southland Times, Issue 23840, 10 June 1939, Page 12

BANKRUPTCY OF A LABOURER

PERIODS OF ILL HEALTH QUESTIONS ASKED ABOUT DRINKING HABITS With debts amounting to £lOB/13/-, being mainly for rent and medical attention, John Peter Hogan, of Invercargill, was examined by the official assignee (Mr A. E. Dobbie) at a meeting of his creditors yesterday. Messrs N. L. Watson and T. V. Mahoney appeared for the creditors. The bankrupt, in his sworn statement, said he was generally employed at the freezing works during the season, and obtained any casual labouring work that was available at other times. In December 1936 he met with an accident on the street and suffered four broken ribs, one of which pierced the lung. He was off work for three months and received nothing during that time. At that time he was married, with one child. Another child was born in February 1937. The bankrupt got into arrears with rent and other accounts, as well as with medical and hospital bills, at that time. About June 1937 he slipped and fractured his foot, which kept him off work for six months. His wife and children had to go to Wellington to his wife’s parents as he could not support them in Invercargill. He started work at the Makarewa’: freezing works in January 1938, and almost immediately lost work through trench mouth. The bankrupt gave details of other periods of unemployment due to injuries and added that his daughter, aged three years, was also ill for six months, and had to be sent to the North Island. He attributed his present position to the medical and hospital expenses caused bv illness and accidents and irregularity of employment over the last three years. In answer to the official assignee the bankrupt said he was now out of work.

To Mr Watson: There was a warrant on a judgment summons against him for which he was liable to a term of imprisonment. He gave up his job because the warrant was against him, his intention being to come to town and fix things up. During the last year he had paid only a few pounds off his medical debts. His average weekly wages at Makarewa would be £5. The official assignee instructed the bankrupt to file a statement of his earnings at the freezing works. MONEY SPENT ON LIQUOR The bankrupt admitted to Mr Mahoney that in the last two months he had lost nearly the whole of his earnings through liquor. “I lost £22 coming up on the Bluff train one night,” he said. The official assignee: Getting down to tin tacks, isn’t liquor the cause of your trouble?

“This last three months, yes,” replied the bankrupt. The official assignee: Why do you chop and change around these doctors? Don’t they get sick of you because you won’t follow their instructions? Bankrupt: I would not say that. You have been to five doctors. Wouldn’t it be cheaper to stick to one? The bankrupt said he hadn’t thought of it in that light. Asked what he proposed to do, the bankrupt said he had a iob to go to at Te Anau, with the Public Works Department. His wife had taken the children up to the North Island. “She is finished with me,” he said. “That is the result of the liquor.” Asked what he was going to allow his wife when he started work the bankrupt said she could have the lot, except for his living expenses. Mr Mahoney: You have a bad shoulder and yet you will be shovelling gravel. I think your idea is to get out of the road and to clear out. “Is that out of the road?” asked the bankrupt. “It looks like it to me,” rejoined Mr Mahoney.

Asked by counsel if he had receipts to show, whether he had paid medical expenses to anybody, the bankrupt said that he had. Counsel continued to question the bankrupt, who turned to the assignee and asked: “Is this man entitled to ask me questions about my wife?” “Don’t you refer to me as ‘that man,’ Hogan,” said Mr Mahoney. “You are asking things my wife told you in confidence,” said the bankrupt, who proceeded to question Mr Mahoney. “You cannot ask counsel questions, Hogan,” said the official assignee. The bankrupt said he was going to pay 30/- a week off his rent. “Have you tried to take out a prohibition order?” asked the official assignee.

“I tried to get one for five years,” said the bankrupt, "but they would only give me one for 12 months.” He added that he had taken out an order.

Mr Mahoney: You have been averaging £5 a week all the year, have you not?

“Round about that,” agreed the bankrupt. Mr Mahoney remarked that the bankrupt had not been paying any rent, and Mr Watson said that his earnings were therefore equivalent to £6 a week.

Asked why his wife was going to Wellington the bankrupt said it was because of the drink.

“She is sick of you, is she not?” asked the assignee. Bankrupt: You can put it that way.

Mr Dobbie suggested that the meeting be adjourned, and Mr Watson said the difficulty he foresaw was that the bankrupt might disappear when he got to Te Anau. “His record as far as my firm is concerned is that he is a complete liability,” counsel declared. Asked why his creditors should suffer because he spent monev on drink, the bankrupt said he had been drinking only the last two months. “And that represents £5O, or half your debts,” said Mr Watson. “You say you lost £22 in one whack.” The bankrupt said he could not make an order on his wages till he knew what he was going to earn and what his wife and children would claim. The meeting was adjourned sine die, and the bankrupt was instructed to obtain a statement of his earnings.