Untitled

New Zealander, Volume XXII, Issue 2391, 30 March 1865, Page 3

A fNJ ARROW escape, —William Tell shooting the apples off his boy’s head

INSOLVENT COURT. TUB SO AY, M VR 9 I 23. (Before his Honor the Cnief Justice.) /?-? .1 »HS VARTY. His Fluor took Unseat at I p. n. The insolvent appeare I for the fi ml hearing, in order to obtain his discharge. M - . Merriman appeared for the insolvent. Mr. B/ookdeld appeared for the op losing creditors. His Honor said that he thought it was to be regretted th \t none of the foreign ere Mtors had sent a power of attorney, as the sums owing to them amounted to £734. The official aislgiee, Mr. Harrop, wn th m examined by Mr. Merrim in, relative to the statement made by the insolvent, respecting the true value of the stock, the assignee stating that he thought it had been fairly made out. According to the ledger, he considered that the insolvent was realising under £490 a year. Believed the book debts, including gool, bal, and indifferent, to amount to £2,300 aid odd pounds. Messrs. Whitaker and Russell’s claim against the estate had not been q ute settled. Considered that the insolvent had w irked with great patience and persaverence in making up the accounts. By Mr. Brookfield : I obtained the personal expenditure of the insolvent from the private account kept by Mr. Warty and from the ledger.

Mr. Brookfield would like to bo informed how it was that the present balance sheet only showed a deficit of £137 old to the e-tate, whereas at a former meeting the official assignee haJ s »id that he believed the deficit would amount tos imethiug like £1,109. Mr. Harrop considered that it had arisen through n gleet in posting up tbe accounts of the foreign creditors. The statement had nit been obtained from the books alo ie, but a'so from Mr. Varty’s personal statement, and Irom various invoices and contra accounts that had been sent in. Had never seen any debtor and creditor aec.iiut that hal been kept re lative to the profits and losses of the business. It was usual to keep one, but in this instance there was no means of obtaining the result except by going through the ledger and adding up the various accounts. The balance sheet does not show the expenditure nor the profit and loss of the business. In soma instances, the ledger showed debtors as creditors. The account of Wilson and Burns or W. 0. Wilson does nut show the correct statement up to the conclusion of transactions, because they hat not been all posted up for two or three mouths.

In answer to a question from his Honor, Mr. II irrop said that he consi lered that all transactions ought at least to be entered in the ledger once a month. By Mr. Brookfield : Had arrived at the statement of books debts after the inso vent having carefully gme through the ledger with Mr. Arthur. John Varty, the insolvent, ex mine 1 as to the resale he had arrived at with respect t > the value of the stock. The insolvent aswered that he had arrived at it by reference to the auctioneer's ca alogue of goods as compared with the invoices and his own personal knowledge. The price of the lithographic press had been £4OO according to invoice. It had b :en in full working order when sold on account of the estate. It had only been two years and a half in use, which woul 1 rather assist to putting it in good working order. The value ot the household furniture had been about £l3O. Had valued the lease at £I,OOO, and it realised £750 at the sale. The stock, household furniture, and lease were sold by forced sale. Considered that nearly half the doubtful debts, which amounted to £179, would be found to be good Although some of the accounts hid not been made up the result could be arrived at by posting and totalling them. . Estimated his trade expenses for the whole period at from £lO <0 to £1,200. Had had no means of access to th i hoiks during the time of his incarceration. With regar Ito Wilson & Burn’s account there had been a disagreement about certain advertisements, which had been allowed to remain in the paper without proper authority. That had been the reason why the account had not beeen properly entered up in the ledger. The insolvent was then shortly cross-examined by Mr, Merriman, and Mr. Vernon the sheriff’s officer, who remained in possession of insolvent’s shop was also examined relative to the amount of debts that had been collected.

Mr. Merriman, on behalf of the insolvent, submitted that the estate came before the Court in a very creditable manner, and that it. had been frittered away through the insolvent having been put iu gaol on the suit of Messrs. Creighton & Scales. He conn.lered that the course they had adopted had been most unjustifiable and had been the sole reason of prevent ng every creditor from being pai l 20s. in the |ionu 1. Besides which there would have been a considerable surplus left in favor of the insolvent. The books had been sacrificed as also the lithographic press in consequence of the forced sale. The Item ef Mr. Varty’s expenditure had been put down at under £490 a year, which he considered could hardly be termed exorbitant for a person doing such an extensive business as the insolvent. With respect to the books not having been posted up, be should like to know what chance the insolvent had of doing so, having been arrested as he had been at a moment’s nonce, and no means biing allosved him of access to them. There was nothing that had been shown to justify any opposition to the insolvent’s discharge. Mr. Brookfield sai l he did not wish to call attention to the expenditure of the ins ilvent, but -he would recall prominently to the attention of his Honor the manner in which the insolvent had commenced business, the fact ot his having made an assignment to Messrs. Whitaker and Russell, and the vexatious opposition that he had offered to Messrs, Creighton and Scabs’account. The inso’vent had been trading on fictitious capi al, thereby making false representations to the public, and so acting in a fraudulent manner. He considered that there hal been enough shown in evidence to justify the insolvent being refused his discharge at least for some time to come. His Honor said that it was evident that the insolvent had only commenced business on £l5O a-year, that he had ma le a compromise of ss. in the pound, and at length appeared before the Court in the light of an insolvent. It was very evident that insolvent’s books had been kept in a very loose manner. He considered it due io the insolvent to say that there appeared to be not the slightest reason to convey the impression that he had been guilty of fraudulently secreting property. (His Honor then went very fully into the evidence commenting upon various portions of it.) Relative to the charge of vexatious opposition to the action brought against the insolvent by Creighton and Scales, He thought hat the defendant had as good reason to complain of complainant as the complainant had of the defendant. It was said that the plaintiffs were willing to allow the set-off of the insolvent ; but if such had been the case, it had not appeared in evidence. Both parties had claimed more than their due; the plaintiffs claiming £lB7 more, and the defendant, £SB so that it would appear that the insolvent was more sinned against than sinning. It in no way appeared that there had been any fraudulent mismanagement of the accounts. They had been undoubtedly loosely kept, but there had been no good reason shown why the Court should be induced to delay the insolvent’s discharge on this account. If £,1009 had been struck off the insolvent’s statement of stock, there would have been still sufficient to muntain the estate solvent. Had there been no accounts kept, the nature of the stock would still have been sufficiently valuable to assure the Court of the solvency of the estate. Looking at all points of the evidence, he did not consider that there was anything that would warrant the Court in the discharge of the insolvent, which he accordingly granted in the usual manner.