DOGGED BY ILL HEALTH

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 58, 2 December 1926, Page 13

DOGGED BY ILL HEALTH

DUNEDIN CARPENTER’S MISFORTUNES A story of bad luck through ill-health was unfolded to the Official Assignee yesterday by Robert Charles Keith Proctor, a carpenter, at the first meeting of his creditors. The amount owing to unsecured creditors was £323 17s. lid., the principal being C. M. Howison and Son, Dunedin, £100; Dr. Bowie, Dunedin, £2B 17s. 6d.; Laidlaw and Gray, merchants, Dunedin, £25 2s. 10d.; Dr. Tavlor, Dunedin, £25; Goodley and Sons, merchants, Dunedin, £l7 2s. 4d.; H. Cooper, storekeeper, Dunedin, £18; Dr. Gibbin, Christchurch, £lB 18s. The assets were given as nil. Bankrupt attributed his failure to ill-health. First of all he suffered from kidney trouble and then strained bis heart. After residing in Dunedin and Christchurch he came to Wellington, where he obtained employment at £5 10s. a week, out of which he had to pay £2 a week for two furnished rooms. To make matters worse, he stated, his wife had had to _ undergo three severe operations during the past three years. The Official Assignee (Mr. S. lansley) presided, and the bankrupt and his solicitor (Mr. A. F. Coningham) were in attendance. No creditors attended. „. . . . In reply to the Official Assignee, bankrupt said he had been in Wellington for about seven months. A good proportion of his Dunedin debts had been contracted while he was building a house in Dunedin. The contract had been taken out of his hands, and he was left with nothing to pay the debts he had incurred. He was now working as a sarpenter in Wellington at 2s. 9d. per hour. He was unable to make any offer to his creditors, as his health was still uncertain. “It looks as if you had been running up debts with no intention of paying them,” remarked the Official Assignee. "I notice you owe money to several grocers in Dunedin. However, as none of the creditors have taken the trouble to be represented at this meeting, all I can do is to adjourn the meeting sine die.”