RUN OF BAD LUCK RUINED FARMER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19107, 27 June 1930, Page 5

RUN OF BAD LUCK RUINED FARMER.

KAIAPOI MAN FACES HIS CREDITORS TO-DAY. A run of exceptionally bad luck and lack of capital were given as the reasons for liis bankruptcy by John Harold Baird, a farmer, of Kaiapoi, who faced his creditors to-day. Five creditors were present, but as only two of them were proved creditors, the Official Assignee, Mr J. H. Robertson, announced that the meeting would be an informal one. Bankrupt’s statement of accounts showed that £596 12s 7d was owing to! unsecured creditors, and £315 to the one I secured creditor. The assets were nil and the total debts amounted to £9ll ' 12s 7d. j The principal unsecured creditors I •were: —F. D.. Kesteven, £300; Dexter and Crozier, Christchurch, £117; New Zealand Farmers’ Co-operative Association of Canterbury, Ltd., £34 6s sd; Blackwell’s, Ltd., Kaiapoi, £32 12s 2d; Miss E. Hayward, Clarkeville, £2O; and R. Bailey, Ashley, £l7 10s. The only secured creditor was the National Mortgage and Agency Company, Ltd. Bankrupt, in his statement, said that he had started farming in 1919 with borrowed capital of £SO, which he paid back in five months. He was milking nine cows and was doing well, as at that time butterfat was 2s 6d a pound. He had no debts and was drawing £4 10s a week in wages. He decided to leave his job, and bought a small dairy herd of sixteen head. Butterfat dropped almost immediately to lOd a lb. Disease had caused the loss of twelve of the herd in the first year. He restocked with seven more cows, but they all died in ten days. By borrowing £IOO from his brother he made a fresh start, but a flood covered the whole of his land just after five of the cows had calved. They were useless after that, and his contract for milk delivery was broken. The same flood caused the loss of forty-five tons of hay, all his green feed, and three acres of potatoes. He was forced to graze his cows for four months, the expense being heavy. To carry on he had to borrow £IOO from a moneylender which had to be paid back at £ls a month. He managed to do this, and by renting twelve acres and growing potatoes managed to pay back the £IOO he had borrowed from his brother. In 1926 he planted thirtythree acres of potatoes at £4 a ton under contract, but just as the potatoes were coming through the ground, the Waimakariri flooded all except five acres. To recover the loss, he replanted, borrowing money for the new seed, but a dry late season made the crop a failure and he ended the year with a debit of £152 on the potatoes alone. More of his cows died, and during the whole of the time he was dairying he lost twenty-six. In 1927 he eold the remainder of his herd and, assisted by the National Mortgage and Agency Company of New Zealand, Ltd., he stocked with sheep. The slump in sheep and wool which followed, and creditors pressing, gave him no option but to file. He ascribed his failure to an exceptional run of bad .luck, lack of finance, and having to borrow at a high rate of interest. In answer to the Official Assignee, bankrupt said that he had no assets and had no money in the bank. Until this year he had always been able to pay his way. A creditor said that bankrupt was a hard-wm'king man who did his best. The bankruptcy had been brought about by bad luck. Another creditor, a farmer in the same district, said that he considered s bankrupt was one of the hardest working men in the district. He had struck a run of very toad luck. “I am quite satisfied,” said Mr Robertson, "and I am sure there is nothing i more, we can do.”