MILKMAN BANKRUPT.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 302, 21 December 1931, Page 8

MILKMAN BANKRUPT.

Poor Business and High Rent Blamed. Frank Love, a dairyman, of 238, Gardiner’s Road, Harewood, met his creditors this morning. There was no

quorum, but the Official Assignee (Mr J. H. Robertson) examined bankrupt. Love attributed his bankruptcy to a falling off in his milk business,' failure of crops on his farm, and the fact that he had to pay a rental which would not permit of running the business at a profit. The amount owing to unsecured creditors was £52 5s 2d, while the amount owing to secured creditors was £620 Is sd. Securities were estimated to be worth £620 Is sd, while bankrupt s assets, consisting of goods and cash in hand, were valued at £6O 11s 6d.

Bankrupt, in his sworn statement, said that in August, 1929, he leased a dairy farm in Harewood, of about twenty acres of land. He had been carrying on since then as a milk vendor, the business having been purchased by his wife from Mr J. Whittaker for the sum of £135 6s Bd. The business consisted of a milk round of 14£ gallons of milk daily. This had now fallen away to 12 gallons daily. This business, together with what bankrupt had been able to get out of the farm in crops, had paid its way until last April, when milk was reduced from 6d to 5d and in some cases 4d a quart. Since then bankrupt found that he could not continue paying the rental of £7 an acre and make the place pay. The crops off the farm last season showed practically no profit. Bankrupt purchased a quarter-acre for £SO and built a home costing £670. There was a first mortgage on this property of £550 in the State Advances Department, and a second mortgage of £6O to Air J. Carpenter. Bankrupt did not consider that he had any equity in this property. He had endeavoured to get a reduction in rent but had not been able to secure it and had got in arrears. Ilis landlord insisted on payment, and bankrupt had asked him to take the property back, but he refused to do so. There was a compulsory clause in the lease, whereby bankrupt was obliged to purchase the property at £l2O an acre in July next, which it would be quite impossible to do.