BANKRUPT TAILOR

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 72, 16 June 1927, Page 15

BANKRUPT TAILOR

EXTRAVAGANCE ALLEGED ASSIGNEE DISSATISFIED “I .can assure you that I am not an extravagant man myself, but I have a la.rge family to support and appearances to keep up,” said Isidor bchneideman, a bankrupt tailor, of Auckland, to a meeting of bis creditors, presided over by the Official Assignee, Mr. G. N. Morris, yesterday. Board yesterday. Bankrupt’s schedule showed an amount of £ 3,441 owing to unsecured creditors, and £482, being moneys guaranteeing bills of the company and one partner. There were no assets A deficiency of £3,923 was revealed. In a statement read to the meeting, bankrupt said he had been in business in Auckland upwards of 20 years with his brothers, under the name of Schneideman Bros., Ltd. He attributed his bankruptcy to the liquidation of the firm. The company started business with £3,000 capital. Five years later the capital was increased to £IO,OOO, £7,000 being fully paid up, and £3,000 uncalled capital. In 1912 another shop was opened in, Queen Street, and both concerns were successful until the commencement of the war. During the war the public regarded them as Germans, and business suffered heavily in consequence. After the war good profits were made, and the balance of the £3,000 was credited as paid up. The company’s debenture liabilities were discharged. Then the 1921 slump came, and all the capital was invested in stocks worth £30,000. A theft of £SOO from the office gave the business: another setback, from which it did not recover, and in November, 1926, a liquidator was appointed. He considered the assets were disposed of at an unreasonably low figure. His bankruptcy had been forced by the liquidator suing him for amounts which he believed were chargeable to the company. Questioned by Mr. Morris as to his c:arnings while with the company, bankrupt said he was paid £750 a year. He could save nothing of it, as he was supporting a wife and six children. He was now in the employ of Auckland Tailors. Ltd., as joint manager, with his brother, at £lO a week, and had no shares in the concern. This company had been started by his friends in order to set them up in business again, and if they fail to make it pay the company is to be wound up immediately. ADVERTISING THE. BUSINESS Asked if he had not kept racehorses, Mr. Schneideman said lie raced one as an advertisement for the business. “When it won it was a good advertisement, and when it lost it was a bad advertisement,” observed bankrupt. amid laughter. Asked by Mr. \V. R. Tuck, a creditor, what had become of an amount of £IOO received from, the sale of a motor-car bought originally by the firm for £3OO, bankrupt said it “must have been divided amongst the directors as a bonus.” MR. MORRIS DISSATISFIED Summing up the examinations of bankrupt, Mr. Morris said he was not satisfied with Mr. Schneideman’s account of certain dealings in respect of the disposal of his house furniture and the motor-car. “In spite of Mr. Schneideman’s denial of extravagance, I am not satisfied with the expenditure of £3OO a year on the keep of his daughter in London, and on other matters,” concluded the assignee. The Official Assignee was urged by the meeting to make a searching inquiry into bankrupt’s affairs, in conjunction with the liquidator, in order to determine the value of Mr. Schneideman’s assets.