“OUGHT TO STINT HIMSELF."

Taranaki Daily News, 30 December 1922, Page 7

“OUGHT TO STINT HIMSELF."

HEAVY CLAIMS AGAINST SIR T. BEECHAM. London, Nov. 3. I understand he has an income, and he ought to stint himself rather than these creditors. These were the remarks of the Registrar at the London Bankruptcy Court, when the affairs of Sir Thomas Beecham were again under consideration and the claims of thirty-three members of the Beeeham Opera Company to £7OOO were mentioned. It was the adjourned hearing of the debtor’s application to approve a scheme for the payment of 20s in the £1 in four instalments. “ALTOGETHER ILLUSORY.” The Deputy-Official Receiver said that the sum required to pay the first instalment was originally estimated by him at £29,620. He had, however, since received notice of additional claims amounting to £233,000. The chief of those was for £225,C0D, and was made by Sir W. B. Peat as liquidator of the Sir Thomas Beecham’s Estate, Ltd. The amount required to pay the first instalment on those claims would be £60,000. The Official Receiver had received a proof of debt from Sir W. B. Peat for £20,000, but he understood that, that amount must not be considered the total claim. Mr. E. Clayton, K.C., for Sir Thomas Beecham, said that he did not agree that the sum which had to be deposited was necessarily £40,000. As a matter of fact. Sir Thomas now hoped to pay the four instalments at once. But he was afraid that it was necessary to apply for another rather long adjournment. On the last occasion a claim io super tax was mentioned, and that matter was still in abeyance. It was the debtor’s contention that Sir William Peat’s claim of £20,000 was altogether illusory. TO PAY ALL AT ONCE. Mr. Clayton added that the money necessary to carry out the proposal had to be raised by sanction of the Court of Chancery. The sum of £40,000, which the executors of the late Sir Joseph Beecham were willing to provide, would be insufficient if the fresh claims were allowed. It was, however, now proposed to raise a much larger amount with a view to paying all the indebtedness at once.

The application was .therefore ad journed until March 28. \