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Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 275, 24 February 1941, Page 2

BACK TO GAOL

BANKRUPTCY FACTS WITHHELD Declaring she would be "a craven bo ward" if she acceded to the Court's request for further facts connected with the bankruptcy of herself and her sister, an elderly woman, Miss Catherine Curry, of Winton, told Mr Justice Lukin, in the Bankruptcy Court at Melbourne that he could keep her in gaol until she was carried out in a coffin.

She said thai she alone possessed the necessary information. The court had before it an adjourned application for an order for committal to gaol of her sister, Alicc Mary Curry. Catherine Curry, who had been in gaol since shortly before Christmas, when she was committed for contempt of court,, referred to court proceedings at Wangaratta in 1939, when she and her sister brougih'} perjury informations against eight witnesses called by Benalla Shire Council in an unsuccessful damages claim brought against it by the sisters. Both sisters were declared bankrupt when they failed to pay to the council a dobt of £8349, representing costs in the case. Their perjury proceedings, in addition, were dismissed. "They are trying to make us pay for something that was illegal," Miss Catherine Curry told the court. The judge: I do not know anything about the proceedings in courts, but in this court it was established that you were unable to pay your debts and you were declared bankrupt. In law you are required to give certain information and. fill in certain bankrupt documents. You will have to go back to gaol until you- get some sense. Catherine Curry said there' was a good reason for her action. The evidence, in the Wangaratta case, she alleged, was false, and the case was a swindle. If she gave the information it would mean she would be giving it to the shire and she would

never hold her head up again if she did that.

After Catherine Curry had said her sistejr had not done any of the business for 20 years or more and knew nothing about it, Mir Justice Lukin said he would adjourn indefinitely the application for the committal order against Alice Marta

Curry