£l78 OWED TO HOSPITAL

Taranaki Daily News, 6 October 1931, Page 13

£l78 OWED TO HOSPITAL

BANKRUPTCY OF WATERSIDES. CREDITOR’S MEETING LAPSES. With a claim of £l7B against him. by the New Plymouth Hospital Board in a total deficiency of £238, William Henry Hunter, watersider of Moturoa, was called to meet his creditors before the D.O.A. (Mr. J. S. S. Medley) at New Plymouth yesterday. No creditors attended and the meeting was adjourned sine die. Hunter stated that for several years he had been working as a watersider at Moturoa doing casual work. He estimated he had earned about £3 a week for the last two or three years. The principal causes of his bankruptcy were hospital and doctors’ fees, but the actual cause was a judgment summons issued against him for the rent of .a beach cottage. Lately work had been very slack and few cargo vessels had been coming since the slag season. Small wages plus the 10 per cent, cut and the £1 levy had made it difficult to keep out of debt. Hunter's schedule showed that he owed unsecured creditors £179 15s and owned furniture valued at £2O, leaving a deficiency of £159 15s. This was reckoning the Hospital Board’s account at £lOO, but the board proved for £l7B 6s, which made the deficiency £238 Is. , The unsecured creditors were: Taranaki Hospital Board £l7B 6s, G. H. Gallaher (baker) £5, J. W. Pooley (Stratford) £l9 15s, L. Hoffman £l2, Hapara (Pihama) £l6, Public Trustee £l2, Dr. Thomson £5, Dr. Walker £1 10s, Powell £2, A. F. Aldie £5 12s, Bendalls Ltd. £1 4s. Hunter stated that in the past twelve months his earnings at the wharf had amounted to £132 5s 9d, less the 10 per cent, cut when it came in force. He had four dependants. His wife had no money nor property. He was living in a beach cottage at a rental of 10s a week. He had not gone bankrupt to avoid being examined under a judgment summons as he considered the'smallness of his earnings would have prevented any order being made.