AFTER EIGHT YEARS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 154, 16 November 1912, Page 6

AFTER EIGHT YEARS.

CREDITORS GET FULL' PAYMENT. According to the Christchurch Press, a case in which creditors, after the lapse of nearly eight years, received full payment of their debts, not entirely with the consent of the bankrupt, happened in Christchurch recently. In 1902 a certain man filed his schedule, and was unable to satisfy his creditors. He omitted to obtain his discharge, but left the cit}', and in another part of the Dominion he prospered, and ultimately communicated with a friend in Christchurck to try to enlist the financial support of some local men in a project he had in hand. In this the friend in Christchurch was successful, but in the course of the enquiries made by those who embarked on the venture it came out that the person in the other part of the Dominion was an undischarged bankrupt. The deal in which he was engaged resulted in a profit to him of close on £2OOO, and he decided to have a trip to England. His friend in Christchurch got wind of this, and not having received payment for his offices he immediately issued a summons, but the erstwhile Christchurch resident managed to elude it, and sailed for Home. His creditors had placed certain facts before the Official Assignee, who took action by attaching some moneys left in the bank by the departing undischarged bankrupt, and also a draft of £IOOO that he was to receive on his arrival in London. The bank authorities, not wishing that their client should be penniless in the world's metropolis, prevailed on the Official Assignee to limit Ihe amount of the draft !:> be attached to half the sum. With the £SOO so attached, and the sum in the Bank the Official Assignee had sufficient to pay the creditors 20s in the £ and 6 per cent, for seven years and three-quarters. When the undischarged bankrupt returned to the Dominion another surprise awaited him in the demand for the payment of an advance made on mortgage. It was at first intended to contest this claim, but a compromise was effected when it was discovered that in law proceedings for an advance on mortgage can be taken up to twenty years after the date of the advance. It is estimated that if the undischarged bankrupt had called his creditors together, and settled with them, he would have been about £4OO or £SOO to the good, and, of course, he would have been in a still .better position if he had goni through the formality of obtaining his discharge.