BANK MANAGER’S AFFAIRS

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 61, 6 December 1926, Page 5

BANK MANAGER’S AFFAIRS

EMBEZZLEMENT AND BANKRUPTCY ACTION IN COMPLICATED POSITION By Telegbaph.—Press association. New Plymouth, December 3. The arrest of a bank manager at Stratford last year on charges of embezzling and his bankruptcy subsequent to his imprisonment were responsible for involved litigation before the Chief Justice in the Supreme Court, The Deputy-Official Assignee asked that a deed of arrangement between William Kerr, now undergoing sentence, and the .Union Bank of Australia and others should be set aside as void under the Bankruptcy Act. After lengthy argument, decision was reserved. Briefly the position was that early in July, 1925, it was discovered that Kerr, then manager of the bank at Stratford, had been embezzling the bank’s funds and usintr them to acquire valuable timber rights on the West Coast of the South Island. J. H. Robson and T A Sullivan had an option over these rights-, and R. R Rinnie was induced bv Kerr to lend £l6OO to enable a purchase to be made. Some of the bank’s tnonev was used for the same purpose. On discovery of the irregularities a deed of arrangement was executed on July 9 at the instance of the bank, by the bank, Robson. Sullivan, Rinnie, and Kerr. Under the deed it was provided that th? timber rights should be transferred to the bank, which was empowered to sell them on ana - terms it thought fit and to anplv the proceeds, (1) in payment of the costs incurred bv the bank over the trouble, (2) in payment of the moneys stolen (including other monevs than those used for the purchase of the timber rights), to"ether with : n*-erest, (3) a pavtnent to Rinnie of £lO6O with interest at 1.0 ncr cent., Li) in payment of £lOO6 to Robson, i 5) in ppvment of out-of-noct-et expenses tn Sullivan, (61 nnv surplus to be divided between Robson and Rinnie., Shortly afterwards Kerr was arrested on various charges of theft and sent to prison. On August 12, 1925, he was adjudicated a bankrupt, aiid as a result the Dermtv-Official Assignee now attacked the deed and asked that it be set aside as being a fraud on Kerr’s creditors.

A strange discovery has been made in connection with the four-masted German barque Gustav, which has just discharged a cargo of guano from Malden Island, preparatory to loading wool in Australia for Europe (states the “Auckland Star”). During a lie-up at Adelaide early this year her sides became rusted and the bottom foul. A few days before weighing anchor the harbour was discoloured by sugar from a refining factory on the waterfront catching fire. The unusual condition of the water proved too much for the fish, thousands of which floated to the surface dead. Contrary winds delayed the Gustav’s arrival at Auckland, but the slow passage was commonly attributed to the supposed foulness of her bottom. As the cargo was dumped into the trucks at the King’s Wharf, and the ship rose out of the water, it was seen that the hull was comparatively cleau. The fact was attributed to the sugar killing the barnacles and causing them to fall off at the Adelaide anchorage. In consequence the Gustav will not go into dock, as originally intended.