RUINED BY SNOWSTORM.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 230, 28 September 1928, Page 8

RUINED BY SNOWSTORM.

RUNHOLDER BANKRUPT.

LOST OVER 10,0CK> SHEEP.

ASSETS NOW VALUED AT £44.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH. this dav.

At a meeting of his creditors. Charles Herbert Ensor. a shecpfarmer, who owned the St. James and White Rock stations, attributed his bankruptcy to his losses of sheep in the big snowstorm of IP]B, and to further losses in the slump that followed.

His debts total £170!) and his assets £44.

In the course of his statement bankrupt said that in. the big snow of 1918 he lost upwards of 10,000 sheep and suffered great damage to fences and buildings. From that time hie position began to recede. In the winter "of 1923 he suffered a further loss of 4000 sheep and an exceptionally tine team of eight packliorses, which were swept away in one avalanche.

'"I do not feel I owe anybody any apology for the position I am in to-day," said Ensor. '"I struggled on in th« hope of paying everybody an full, but it was not to be. If it had not been for forced sales of stock in 1924-25, I should have liad the benefit of the recent high prices for wool and stock, and I should not have found it necessary to make the acquaintance of the Official Assignee. However, I have no desire to blame anybody, as such things could not then be confidently foreseen."