WHANGAREI GUM-BUYER BANKRUPT

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 50, 21 May 1927, Page 16

WHANGAREI GUM-BUYER BANKRUPT

CREDITORS DISSATISFIED POSITION DISGUISED (From Our Oxen Correspondent .) WHANGAREI, To-day. At a meeting of creditors in the bankrupt estate of Nicholas Clarich, a Dalmatian gunf-buyer, held yesterday afternoon, considerable dissatisfaction was expressed over the manner in which bankrupt had disguised his position from them. The amount owing to unsecured creditors was £774 16s, and to secured creditors £lO7 8s 6d, less the estimated value of securities, £270, leaving a surplus to contra of £162 11s 6d. The total assets which bankrupt claimed one estate would produce amounted to £ 302 11s 6d. Mr. Ramsey, official assignee, stated that this latter amount was exaggerated. For instance, a motor truck was put down at £IOO, when £3O was its outside value. Other assets were in the same condition. Bankrupt said his position was due to the fall in gum prices. Since 1920 he had handled over £5,000 worth of this commodity, and showed a loss of of 20 per cent on each transaction over the whole period. The purchase of a motor-truck for carting gum was also a means of heavy loss. This truck had cost him about £3OO for repairs. It was always in the repair shop. In September last, on the advice of his solicitor, bankrupt had called a meeting of creditors, but had only notified those who were pressing him hardest. Creditors representing between £3OO and £4OO of debt were never notified, and these debts were not disclosed. The result was that he was permitted to carry on, under the supervision of an accountant, and he had got still further in arrears. Moneys earned during this time were •t properly accounted for, and bankrupt seemed very hazy over the matter when asked by the assignee. A motion was carried opposing discharge of the bankrupt until such time as 10s in the £ was paid to all the creditors. The assignee, Mr. E. P. Ramsey, said he was not at all satisfied with this proposal, and would go further into Clarich’s books, with the object if he saw fit of placing the matter in the hands of the Crown Prosecutor.