IN BANKRUPTCY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 11, 29 August 1911, Page 5

IN BANKRUPTCY.

o UNUSUAL FEATURES. (Per Press Association ) Auckland, August 28. John George Hobson, formerly a builder in Auckland, who pleaded guilty last week to two out of four counts, charging him with breaches of tho Bankruptcy Act in failing to keep propai' books and incurring 'debts at a time when he had no reasonable or probable expectation of pacing tuem, was brought up before Mr. Justice Chapman for sentence at the Supreme Court to-day.

Mr. Earl appeared for the prisoner, and pointed out the extraordinary and unusual circumstances surrounding the bankruptcy. For years tho. prisoner worked on wages as a joiner, and was a steady, hard-working and clean-living man, and rigorously honourable. In January last ho started in business as a builder, and was adjudicated a bankrupt on May 7th. His business career was meteoric. He commenced to build on allotments on which lie had not paid a deposit, and employed a large staff on work which could not possibly lie profitable. William Rowe gave evidence on the mental change that had taken place in the prisoner. From a quiet and steady man, lie developed a violence of language and rashness in speculation that indicated he was not rational. He opened a shop, filled it with second-hand furniture, started a joinery shop, and then wanted to embark in a pork butchery shop. A further remand was granted till Friday so that in the meantime prisoner may be examined.