FAILURE OF KINROSS AND Co., OF NAPIER.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8366, 10 January 1889, Page 2

FAILURE OF KINROSS AND Co., OF NAPIER.

AN OLD ESTABLISHED FIRM BANKRUPT. [per press association.] Napier, January 9. _ The meetin? of creditors in the estate of Messrs Kinross and Co. was adjourned to 21st January, owing to the illness of the bankrupt, lne principal creditors are :— Uuion Bank. £16,570 ; Dabetty and Co., £16,136 ; Stewart and McDonald, £5,334. Kinross' 3 approximate estimate shows the assets at £146,000 ; liabilities, £106,000.

The failure of any old established firm of merchants, says the Napier Telegraph, cm only be regardod as a misfortune, and it is quite in that light that tho news will be received of that of Messrs Kinross and Co. In the large and multifarious business of that fit m which haR been carried on inNapier for closa upon thirty years, it is^ impossible not to suppose that its ramifications must extend far and wide It is, therefore, impossible to say to what extent the failuro will affect others, and how far the misfortune of the one firm will be shared by other business houses, and ev»n by private individuals. The firm of: Kinross and 00. is the outcome of tint of Smart and Kinross, which established itself at Wellington ia 1855. Three years afterwars Mr Kinross came through from Wellington with the late Mr Purke, then Provincial Surveyor, the party having cut their way through the Seventy mile Bush, taking a course which was afterwards followed by the main road. Attracted by the obviously grand future of Hawke's Buy, Messrs Stuart and Kinross decided on opening business in Napier, which at that time was better known as Ahuriri. About the year 1864 the two partners, who had been tellow passengers to New Zealand, dissolved their connection, Mr J. M. Stuart takinsr the general merchandise branch, and Mr J. G. Kinross securing the wool, station, and shipping business. Thence arose the two firms of Stuart and Go. and Kinross and Co. Mr J. M. Stuart retired to England many years ago, leaving the business to his brother John, and, subs3quently, devoting himself to politics, offered himself as a candidate for tbe representation of Belfast. Returning from an election meeting be caught cold, and shortly after died. Mr John Slusrt, after some years, also-retired to the Old Country, and the firm of Stuart and Co. disappeared from Napier. Tbe sister house of Kinross and Co. grewrauidly, and from the system of business conducted in those days wus aB much a bank as a general station agency. At that time — wo speak of some twenty years ago — the profits must have been enormous, and Mr Kinross, in the possession of valuable sheep runs that he found himself compelled to take over, was reputed to be immensely wealthy. The collapse of the Glasgow Bank in 1878, it was understood, severely affected the firm, but there was nothing to indicate ony disastrous , results, and, in fact, it has only been quite recently that disquieting rumours were afloat. It is difficult now to realise how it cams about that a business which embraces so large a wool export, and whioh must have so many profitable station and shipping agencies, has been brought to such a pass as to necessitate recourseito the Bankruptcy Court. Mr Kinross has occupied man}' public positions during his long residence in Napier. He was a member of the Provincial Council, and subsequently repre- j sented Maraekakuho in the flawke's Bay County Council; ho is n Justice of tho Peace, and n member of the Harbor Board. In the last returns of flockowners he is put aown as owning 32,155 sheep at Glenross and Raukawa.