PIONEER FACES HIS CREDITORS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 87, 4 July 1927, Page 7

PIONEER FACES HIS CREDITORS

FAILURE AFTER 45 YEARS RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY nnO have to face bankruptcy after 45 years of pioneering on the upper reaches of the Waitemata, was the misfortune of Mr. Thomas Hunter, a respected settler, 72 years of age, who met his creditors this morning at the office of the Official Assignee, Mr. G. N. Morris. Bankrupt’s schedule showed £490 owing to unsecured creditors, and £2990 to secured creditors. The value of securities was given as £5445. The assets were lpook debts worth £lO and furniture £lO, while the surplus of securities was £2454. A surplus of £1984 was revealed, but this amount will vanish on realisation of the assets. Mr. Hunter came to New Zealand in 1882, and with the exception of a few years during which he paid a visit to England, he has been farming in the Albany district ever since. In a statement read to the meeting bankrupt said in 1908 he began a launch service on the harbour in conjunction with fruit growing on his property at Greenhithe. Both his brothers were killed in the war. In consequence he had to hire labour to run the farm. At the end of 1923 an opposition launch service started and from that time he began to lose. Examined by Mr. Morris, bankrupt said he had been in trouble for about two years and had hoped to “pick up’’ certain small debts owing some time ago, but had been unable to raise the money. “There doesn’t seem to be much against this man,” remarked Mr. Morris. “I think he is more to be pitied than otherwise," said Mr. Bruce Scott, a creditor. “He is an old settler and we are deriving ihcbenefit of his labours." A resolution of sympathy with bankrupt was passed by the meeting, tne Official Assignee being instructed tc facilitate Mr. Hunter's discharge.