BANKRUPT ENGINEER.

Waikato Times, Volume 111, Issue 18625, 2 May 1932, Page 8

BANKRUPT ENGINEER.

VICTIM OF DEPRESSION. FARM AND BUSINESS LOSSES. Losses on a farm at Komakorau, and the depression in the dairying industry, which adversely affected his water-heater business, were given as the chief reasons for his failure, by Samuel Harold Baggarley, engineer, of Hamilton, at a meeting of his creditors in Hamilton this morning. The Official Assignee, Mr V. R. Crowhurst, presided. The schedule showed liabilities totalling £961 4s, and assets £B7 Its, leaving a deficiency of £873 13s. The sum of £1943 12s 3d was owing to secured creditors, the value of securities being estimated at £1763 11s 2d. In his statement bankrupt said he sold his farm of 163 acres at Komakorau for £5250 in June, 1927. He received his equity of £1250 in cash. All his liabilities, with the exception of debts to his son and one' other creditor, were then wiped off. At this time he bought a home in Clarence Street, Hamilton, for £865 cash and spent pver £2OO on it in repairs and improvements. The man to whom he sold the farm could not pay interest and allowed the property to go back. In October, 1927, bankrupt took the farm over and increased a mortgage of £IOOO to the Public Trustee to £I7OO. After carrying on the property as a grazing proposition at a loss until the middle of 1929 he considered his only chance of making the place pay was to erect buildings and put on a sharemilker. He built a house and milking-shed and installed milking machines with £BOO raised from the Public Trustee on first mortgage of his Clarence Street property and £4OO on second mortgage of the farm. \ He could not make the place pay and got further into arrears of interest. In 1931 he transferred the property to his son, L. C. Baggarley, who assumed liability under the existing mortgages. Mortgaged Patent Rights. Bankrupt, Continuing, said he had been attempting to make a waterheater business successful. By July, 1931, he owed a considerable sum to F. and W. Fowler, Lid., for waterheaters. They pressed for payment and compelled him to give them a mortgage of his patent' rights. Pressure from the firm compelled him to assign 'his then book debts, amounting to £sl 9s 3d in March, 1932. Bankrupt then referred to litigation in connection with a motor collision in October, 1931, in which judgment was given against him for £92. The accident increased his liabilities by £147. He had done his best to avoid bankruptcy and attributed his position to losses 'incurred in connection with the farm property taken back and to abnormal times. Business had been slow and there had been many cancelled orders concerning the water-heater business. As the business had been conducted exclusively with farmers it had suffered considerably. Lack of capital had been a great drawback, but he had hopes of recovery had ho been allowed to carry on. He could make no offer to his creditors. Books to be Scrutinised. Examined, bankrupt said he was running a shop in Alexandra Street up to about a month ago, and had been painting occasionally since then. He said his main difficulty was that farmers did not have the money to pay for the goods ordered from him. Sonic of the debts shown in the schedule were many years old. He had incurred little credit over the last six months. The creditors expressed a desire for investigation of bankrupt’s hooks. The Assignee agreed to adjourn the meeting for a fortnight for this purpose. He pointed out that, apart from a few shares bankrupt’s assets consisted of stock-in-trade valued at £53 The question of disposal of these could be left, to the adjourned meeting.