RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Wellington Independent, Issue 3137, 2 March 1871, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

— ♦ Wednesday, Mabch 1 (Before J. 0. Crawford, Esq., 8.M.) AWiK&BD BBBAOH OF BANXBTJPTCY AOT. John Anderson stood charged with fraudulent bankruptcy, by having eonoealed the sum of £50 at the time he was declared bankrupt in the Supreme Court, on the 23rd November last. Mr Izard appeared for the prosecutor, Mr Walter Johnson, and Mr Allan appeared for the accused. E. H. Ingpen, deputy-registrar of the Supreme Court, was called, and deposed : I have custody of the papers filed in the bankruptcy business, and have those in the matter of John Anderson, bankrupt (declaration of insolvency produced), dated Bth Nov., 1870 ; also a, statement of assets filed on the 12th Nov. The defendant was adjudioated a bankrupt on the 25th November, and on the same clay he filed a further statement of property. He has since filed a statement of accounts. Walter W. Johnston, deposed : I am a merchant in Wellington, of the firm of Levin and Co., and am trustee in the estate of John Anderson. The defendant had dealings with our firm prior to his inoolvency, as we were in the habit of advanoing moneyß to him, and had advanced some to him shortly before his insolvency. It was his practice to come in the early part of the month for money to pay for the skins ho had purchased the preceding month. In the early part of November he brought me a list of the amount he was indebted to various parties for skins, and asked for £181 19s. He received a cheque for this on the 4th November. Two or three days after he applied for a further sum of money in order to pay the people he employed for scouring Bomo wool, and on the *7th November wo gave him a cheque for £55. These chequeß have been paid. On the Bth November I b&w in a paper that Mr Anderson had filed a declaration of insolvency. the 9th I^uw

Mr A-nderson and my surprise at seeing such an advertisement j after I had furnished him fifk money;; to 'pay bis creditor* arid his work people:. '• He, then told rae he had not paid his oreditori or his workpeople, bub that he had given £100 to Mr Donald, £15 to Mr Allan, and . that he had paid two or three trifling accounts of £2 or £3 each. This apparently left in his hands a balance of £60 or £70, and I asked him for the balance. I told him it did not .belong to him, bat to the creditors, and asked him to give it to me. .He said he had not got it about him. I asked him ii b.B had got any at the Waterloo Hote}, " Kaiwarra. He replied " Ho, I hare got it at some house in town," but refused to tell me where it was. He said he would very likely want the money to carry him down South. I was subsequently appointed trustee in,, the estate, and at various times since I have asked Mr Anderson to account for this money. A I have since received from his solicitor afl statement of accounts, which I was asked to sigu. I did not sign it, because at the end of the" statement the only account I noticed of assets and liabilities was worded Bomewhat in this way : " assets and liabilities," as per schedule filed on, &o. As I had not a - copy of that schedule I would not Bign it, and I told Mr Anderson so when he called for the statement, telling him also I did not think the former schedule contained the cash which he previously told me he had in his possession. He said he was not going to starve, and he would take his chance. I think he asked me if he gave up this money whether the creditors would make him any allowance out of this money on which to live. I told him I thought not. I shortly after went to the country, and on returning I examined the schedule referred to in Mr Anderson's statement, and on finding that he had not put down in it the money he admitted to me he had after paying the accounts already spoken of, • I told him I would oppose his discharge. By Mr Allan : Ho never said I had driven him into the Court. He told me when I asked him for the £60 or £70 that he was afraid from what Mr Pharazyn had said to him one day on the wharf that he might wind him up some day when he had no money ; and he therefore thought he would make a draw and then file his schedule. I was trying to get possession of his property. I remember you bringing me a statement of accounts, but I don't recollect saying that I had looked through them, and that they were substantially correct. I never looked through them. I would have done so if he had asked. I was not aware that that statemont of accounts contained an entry admitting the receipt of that money from your firm. Why I refused to go into the statement with him was because ifc did not contain an entry of the money he said he had after having paid M'Donald and • the other small debts. Anderson's workmen have never come to me for money. They ■ asked me if they were not entitled to their money before other creditors. I told them I did not know, but if they were they would doubtless get it. I had in my possession some fourteen bales of wool, the proceeds of which will come to me. Mr Izard said that was all the evidence he was going to produce then, and asked for a remand till the next day. Mr Allan had no objection, provided it was on the understanding that he could, if necessary, procure an adjournment till Friday. Remanded till the following day, defendant being bound over in the sum of £50, and to find two sureties in a like amount each.