BANKRUPT SALESMAN.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 June 1926, Page 8

BANKRUPT SALESMAN.

DEBTS £1689, ASSETS NIL. A LIQUIDATED COMPANY. Unsecured debts totalling £16.89 17s 3d and no assets were shown in the bankrupt estate of Harry Archer Potvine, formerly of New Plymouth, a meeting of whose creditors was held yesterday at the office of the Deputy Official Assignee (Mr. J. S. S. Medley). Bankrupt is now employed in Auckland as a wine and spirit salesman. After his examination the meeting was adjourned sine die. The D. said he could see little prospect of the creditors being paid. Present at the meeting were bankrupt and his solicitor (Mr. P. Grey), who also held proxies for three of the larger creditors, Mr. Blair, for the New Zealand Express Company, and Mr. Brokenshire, for Standish and Anderson. Mr. Medley presided. Unsecured creditors were: New Zealand Express Company, New Plymouth, £47 14s; Mrs. Gayton, boardinghouse keeper, New Plymouth, £1 6s 6d; Standish and Anderson, solicitors, New Plymouth, £l4 3s; Holton, garage proprietors, Paekakariki, £5 3s 8d; Barbers' Garage, Petone, £8 2s 6d; Mrs. Preston, c/o Preston and Co., Wellington, £5 ss; Dr. Isaacs, Wellington, £4 4s; Arthur’s Furnishing Co., New Plymouth, £2 2s 6d; H. G. Brodie, solicitor, Hawera, £1 19s; Dr. Buist, Hawera, £1 Ils 6d; White’s, Ltd., New Plymouth, £1 7s 8d; Trustees of the late W. D. Powdrell Hawera, £600; Mrs. E. Coutts, Devonport, £450; Mrs. E. Parkinson, Devonport, £150; B. McCarthy, solicitor, Hawera, £120; W. H. Edwards and Son, Wellington, £lB5 16s; Repatriation Department, £65 9s 3d; L. Quinlan, Wellington, £25 12s Bd. After five and a-half years at the wai in the Army Service Corps, bankrupt said he joined the Defence Department. He was unsuccessful in this and was advised to go into business. In June, 1920, he formed the Invicta Clothing Manufacturing Company, of Wellington, in which he agreed to take up 1500 shares. Mr. W. D. Powdrell consented to finance him and advanced £6OO. Of this bankrupt put £375 into the business and the balance into a house in Wellington. He met three calls by the company amounting to £845, but he was unable to pay others, and eventually owed the company £655, the balance of the £l5OO. The company went into liquidation in 1923. The sum of £1320 was advanced by Mr. Powdrell, Mrs! Parkinson, Mrs. Coutts and Mr. McCarthy between them and this was distributed approximately as follows: —Invicta Company, £845; deposit on house and expenses, £225; papering, £9B; furniture, £150.’ On the company going, into liquidation he received nothing except some wages. A mortgage on the house amounted to £l2OO and he had reduced this to £lOOO when he had to surrender the property. Bankrupt said that he obtained a position in Wellington but gave this up.four months later to sell salt and dairy requisites in Taranaki. His headquarters were at Hawera. Three months later he had a disagreement with his principal, and sued him, but got nothing. For about two years he sold cars in New Plymouth, hardly making a living. At the end of 1925 he joined an Auckland flax' company, but nothing came of this and he was unemployed until he’ received his present appointment at £5 16s a week. He had a wife and child, aged four. His life insurance for £2OOO had lapsed, bankrupt told the D.O.A. He could make no immediate offer to his creditors, except that he intended to pay them as soon as he could.

In answer to further questions bankrupt said he was forced to file because the New Zealand Express Company had obtained judgment for his removal expenses from Wellington. The large sums advanced by the late Mr. Powdrell and others were not secured and were made to help him out in the Wellington company. The lenders were his wife’s relatives. Had Mr. Powdrell been alive the trouble would not have occurred, he thought, because he wouid have received the balance of the £l5OO to put into the Invicta Company. Mr. Brokenshire suggested that bankrupt might concentrate on paying the small creditors. It was hopeless about the others.