BOARDERS LEFT WHEN TIMES BECAME HARD.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 142, 17 June 1931, Page 1

BOARDERS LEFT WHEN TIMES BECAME HARD.

A falling-off in the number of boarders, due to hard times, was the reason given by Joseph Hughes Lionel Watson, boardinghouse keeper, Hawarden, for his bankruptcy. A meeting of his creditors called for this morning lapsed for want of a quorum. The deficiency was set down as £BB6 6s 4d. The sum of £35 8s lOd was owing to unsecured creditors, and £1750 7s 6d to secured creditors. The estimated value of the securities was £9OO. There were no assets.

Bankrupt stated that in June, 1930, he purchased a boardinghouse and five acres of land at Hawarden from William Cannon for £2200. He paid no cash but took over a first and a second mortgage and executed a third. The balance of the purchase price was paid by transference to William Cannon of bankrupt’s house property in Christchurch. Bankrupt found that as time went on the number of boarders steadily decreased, and in consequence he could not pay the interest on the mortgages. He was now twelve months in arrear with the interest on the first and second mortgages and over six months in arrear with the payments on the third mortgage. He attributed his failure entirely to the falling off in the number of boarders. That in its turn had been brought about by the general depression, which had particularly affected the rural districts. He was a single man with no dependants. lie did not drink or gamble to excess. He also bought the property at too high a price.

Further examined, bankrupt stated that several of the boarders had left to live in small baches of their own. Several private homes in Ilawarden were taking in boarders.