CORRESPONDENCE.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1856, 4 July 1874, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

; A. HARD CASE.; ■■ :. To the Editor of the Thames Advertiser. Sir,—The animosity. : and - anger...of those who lose their money is natural, but to state untruths under a noia-de-plume is almost too bad; therefore, aijow me to.make a few contradictions, I scheduled a'debt to a dressmaker as £-1 10s. and it turns out I owe her but £2 10s—the only debt due to a dressmaker, and that is the balanced an account due before X came to the Thames. I did not solicit credit of a grocer, nor do I owe any money for groceries to a poor or crippled man.,„ The only grocer to whom I owe money has property, houses, &o'.; land though his case, and the : case ; of many others, is hard, and they ought to be paid; by forcing me to extremities they have put it out of ray power to pay them. A draper, who pressed and is then paid half his debt or nearly half, i 3 malicious to attribute dishonesty if immediately afterwards, he presses, issues warrants, and obliges hisdebtor-to'file. I did not borrow money and go to Auckland and file. I did borrow money, andlook on : it at a debt of honor, to be.some.day repaid, But I did not filo until some weeks afterwards when two warrantswere out, which I was powerless tr avert. I then sigaed hero and 'forwarded the document-to towni' The. existence of those two garrants the judgo and opposing counsels thought due and sufficient grounds for filiug—and they were due and sufficient ground's'. ', It, was; proved in court that I had received about' £39 over and above what I had satisfactorily accounted for. And as the Chief Justice, sail I could not have made a private purse, the.sum being not too large for the incidental oxpenses inourred in the tmi9. : Therefore,, siuce my whole means of living have been foroibly seizo'd by the; Trustee in Bankruptcy, I am living on private oharity. Eent,doctor's advioe,&o., cannot bo turned uxtp &ad w.thjKe weie. rq sunstfla^

ties in the liabilities to turn into money, I am penniless. As to the bankruptcy being fraudulent, J will put it to any man of sense whether I was likely to jeopardise, and most likely lose a good position, credit, and character for the sake of £80 or £90 worth of necessaries ? It was evident that nothiiig ; ,but .dread of,imprisonment wouldidrivelmedb a* bourse'so injurious to my own interests. lam sorry, and have far more reason to be sorry! than anyone else. After seventeen years in this colony, during which I never entered a debtors' Court, it is very hard to meet with such a blow to my social position and credit. But I have brought it on myself, not wilfully, but perhaps carelessly, by incurring liabilities, it would take me some time to payoff. I admit it is hard on those to whom I owe money, ;specially hard on those who treated me with! forbearance and: courteijyi; rßut I have ■'■' ■ myself.' suffered ' heavy losses when I did not press, because my debtors bankrupt on pressure from other creditors, and I am now, and have ever been far more im pecunious than anyone to whom I owe moue'y. Ido not consider the fact that my el-editors are all* well-to-do any reason whythey shaujddose; their, money, but it is a reason why they will feel the J loss less. I did not ask the .Trustee in Bankruptcy to arrange my affairs, and by the advice of my solicitor I refused, to sanction an arrangement he was anxious to mako and that was impracticable. Because of this he has forcibly, seized all my earnings, and lefc me to starve, were it not for the bounty of private friends; and it is of this I complain, and not of the action of my creditors. It was a course that;'l would not.tako if I wanted ;to get money from chan ! co of payment -""rests' ohtirely on the maintenance of their' position and character, but it is legal, and if .one lays oneself open to it "one must put up with it. I have got one of "men's rights" _this, timei with a particular drop of gall mixed ' in iti I suppose, because I am a woman, in.tlie shapo;6f my withheld salary. Men seeui to 1 'Urive' 1 on •' bankrupt'o'y faif for For. a couple of hundred pounds' worth of uecessuries lam to be punished by two months' penury. As to the ■" widow," lam willing.to be treated as a! man, as I have all the. responsibilities of a man, but I don't think .poor widows were meant, or they would have no "houses" for the lawyers: to "devour." ffn~ exclusion, sir, I think- they ought to be satisfied 'with.vhavihgffdestroyed-my position and credit, and that'it is neither manly,.or businesslike, or right, to maliciously iprosecute scqo ? by- the ■ jlose^pf all my 'of "-living—my- earnings, my daily bread. - I shall not trouble you again,—Yours,&p.,., ~ , ~. ~-" « ■A^GqioLovQE.