BANKRUPT DAIRYMAN.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15225, 30 April 1923, Page 5

BANKRUPT DAIRYMAN.

WORKED JOE NOTHING.

TRACKED BY ILL-FORTUNE.

A HINUERA FAILURE. A meeting of /creditors in the bankrupt estate of George Graham, 'farmer, of Hinuera, was held at the Hamilton Courthouse to-day. The Deputy Official Assignee, Mr V. H. Sanson, •presided. , Bankrupt's sta|§ment showed assets estimated to realise £2717, and' his debts at £1794, leaving a nominal surplus of £923. Tbi total estimated value of securities was given at £7383, and the total amounts owing to secured creditors at £SOIO. In his written statement bankrupt said that from 1908 to 1915 he was farming a property at Karapiro, Cambridge. In April, 1915, he sold out to J. Banks for £4315, subject to a mortgage for £2200, so that his equity was £2115. There was no cash paid over, but he received certain properties at Frankton and Claudelands in part payment. The balance of the payment was made up ih a mortgage due in 8 months' time. He after purchased a property at Hinuera from Messrs Webb, Roberts, Winstone and others. The area was 681 acres, and the price was £6 per acre. He was to hand over the Frankton and Claudelands properties, valued at £IBSO, and- the balance of the purchase money, £2236, was to remain on first moregage for 681 acres for five years at 5 per cent, but the interest was not to be paid until the 5 years had elapsed. It was further agreed that Webb and Co. should supply him with seeds and manure to the value of £SOO, to be paid for at the end of five years. When he took pver the property he believed the only sum he owed was £450 to his father. He learned about this time that the mortgage which he thought was due-in about eight months was hot ,dUe for 1 year 10 months. This considerably upset his calcula- " tions, as he was depending on this money to property. He 'boroweci £750 from his father, giving him in return a second mortgage over/ ' the property. He had a house built on the land, and then discovered that the property was still in the name of Webb and Co., although" the oolicitor at Cambridge, who was acting for him, had previously beert instructed to conduct a search. After a' lot of trouble he managed to borrow money to pay off, getting £2500 -from Mrs J. Brown, of Rerhuera, on the whole of the 68L aores. This meant aV re-arrangement of the mortgages, and £950 had to be secured to Winstone at 6 per cent, instead of s\per cent, and the interest had to be paid quarterly instead <*f at the end of 5 years. In 1918 he had broken in sufficient land to run a herd, and he consequently started dairying. The herd was brought through the N.Z.C.D.C, and the machines from the Treloar Co. He had a herd of 81 head, mostly heifers, which were reduced to 56 for the second season. He lost nine head altogether, while the sharemilkers were unsatisfactory. His interest and mortgages amounted to £279 a year, while he had also to pay 8 per cent on the cows. The N.Z.C.D.C. was taking one-third of his milk cheques, and the share-milkers, onethird, leaving him only one-third to run the farm and pay his interest. He cut the farm in three parts and sold one for £3116, and with the cash he received paid Winstone's second mortgage of £950 and the third mortgage to his father- of £750.N There was a'; further re-arrangement of finances, and touched seemed to- turn out disastrously. '■ In January and February of 1921 he.sent three "trucks of cattle to the freezing works, and they proved a dead loss. He started dairying again, but the market slumped. The crops he put ih were eaten right out by rabbits, while he had difficulty over labour. He and his wifir had worked incessantly to try and win through, and both had suffer6d in health in consequence. They had lived frugally for the past eight years, and had not been extragavant' to the slightest degree. Even placing the property at a price which he considered most reasonable, he believed that it was worth more than the mortgages now on it. Want of ready cash had rendered it impossible for him to carry on, and he had reluctantly been forced to file. To avoid doing so he had reduced his price of the lower section from £22 10s per acre to £ls, and the balance At 347 acres> from £l7 to £ll. He attributed his. failure to the involved state of following the sale of the Karapiro; farm, and the successive financing; to' the high cost of farming unimproved country; to the slump in stock; to casualties amongst his stock; and to damage by rabbits. Mr W. Gray, for bankrupt, assured the meeting .that bankrupt was-neither guilty of indolence nor extravagance. He had worked hard and genuinely to try and recover his position. 'The D.O.A. said it was a long time since a bankrupt had presented so full a statement as Graham had.

No action was taken by the creditors