A LEVANTING BANKRUPT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 153, 7 October 1910, Page 5

A LEVANTING BANKRUPT

COURT PROCEEDINGS. « Jij By Telegraph.—-Press Association. Wellington, Octobw 5. Alfred Frank Higgins, grocer, of Wellington, who was recently brought back from Hobar.t under the Fugitive Offenders Act, appeared on remand at the Magistrate's Court thi?. mom- , i.ng, before Mr. W. G. Riddell, S.M., to answer a charge that, after having been v adjudged bankrupt, he had quitted New, Zealand and taken with him part of . his. property that ought by law to have been divided amongst his creditors. Mr. T. Xeave pfosecuted on behalf of the Crown. Law Office, and Higgins was defended! by Mr. C. R. Dix: Prisoner elected to be dealt with summarily, and pleaded hot 'guilty. Counsel for the prosecution saad than it rested upon the, defendant to .prove he had no guilty intent if he desired - to escape. The prisoner until' August last had been in business as a groceil in Kent Terrace. Towards,' the end of July he sold the business to a gentleman named Hurrell, and after , receiving the purchase money on August 3 he leit Wellington for the south, and on August 10 quitted New Zealand lor; • Tasmania without making arrangements for the payment of his creditors, and, unknown to creditors, he took with him the sum of £(540. He went to Hobart, and was there arrested by Constable Sims after the issue of a warrant con* sequent on the action of the creditorfl. Opposing counsel admitted that pris* , oner left the country in the name

of Alfred Fleming, and, that the pe- • tition 'for bankruptcy was lodged on August 27. ' Evidence showed that proved debts against Higgins amounted to £262 odd. The defence is that Higgins had no intention to defraud.. He went to Tasmania to establish a woman in business, ; and i'-.tended to. return. He would have returned earlier, but for the illness of a child* The case is unfinished.