PERSONAL STATEMENT

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 59, Issue 47, 27 March 1930, Page 5

PERSONAL STATEMENT

THE ESTATE OF C. E. CREWS. TALK OF AN ALLEGED BROKEN AGREEMENT. The personal statement of Charles Edward Crews, mercbant, of Napier, who recently filed his petition in bankruptcy reads as follows : — "I came to Napier in 1920, having purchased the business known as the Napier Dairy Company. I put £500 into, this and Mr Ritchie put in £1000. I was very successful in this business, my profits sometimes being up to £2000 per year. In 1924 .1 sold the Clive butter factory, which was partj of this business, to a co-operative company of dairy farmers. I received £6000 in cash for the factory and left £2000 in the company for a term of years. "In 1927 this company Ijad to go into liquidation and I arranged with my bank to re-purchase the business for £5150. This deal included ahout £2000; hook debts as well as the land, buildings, plant and maehinery. The bank held a debenture over the whole of the company's assets and a mortgage over the land on which the factory was- built. The company owed the bank £51*50 and the bank undertook to have the business transferred to me if I would take it over at that figure. 1 "I took possession in January, 1927, and suecessfully worked the business up again, showing a profit of £1596 in one year. After heing in possession some time, I wqs informed that the bank had not actually released the securities held over the assets and would not do so unlfess certain indemnities were given by my euarantors. As I had spent approximately £1600 on the property since takine possession I did my best to compl.y with the bank's requirements and negotiations proceeded ovqr one year "and eight months, when finally. the hqnk refused . to release the titles of the business to me unless still further guarantees were given. ' I had spent all my earnings on improvements to the business, besides disposing of other assets" and raising various sums amounting in all to nearlv £5000. "In March, 1929, I sold the Napier dairy fresh food and ie* cream manufacturing business in Hastings street and the proceeds. £2250. all went into the factory business.' In this way I had redueed my working account overdraft at thd bank from £1750 to approximately £400, and it was about this time (May, 1929) that the bank finally refused to carr.y out the arrangements made with me in July, 1927. I vacated the factory at the end of May, 1929, as the bank had' rpfused to release my titles and had also refused to giye me any further kccommodation. I estimate m.v loss in connection with the Clive factory deal at over £7000, caused entirely by the refusal of the' bank to carry out . arrangeinents made with ' in© before I took possession of the business. "In 1924 I invested £2000 cash in a dairy company in Dannevirke. I was appointed managing director and manager, of this company. and the business was- carried on suecessfully for over two years. When I took over the Clive business, we appointed another man to manage the Dannevirke business and in two years the company Iost about £6000. To enable the Dannevirke company to carry on, I personally advanced it over £1500 and guaranteed the bank overd,raft in c-onjunction with another man. On occasions when the half-yearly bank interest was dug, I was called upon to pay. and under pressure I paid several sums of money in this connection. "In February, 1929, • the Dannevirke company went into liquidation and in that connection I Iost approximately £10,000, th© greater part of the company's burdens faUmg on myself. I was interested in a carrying business in Napier for some time and also Iost some money in.it, though this loss was caused chiefly by my otlier financial troubles arising from the Clive factory business. ' "My turnover in my Napier and Clive business ranged from £2000 to £3000 monthly, and the dehts amounted to. approximately one month's -trading. When I vacated the Clive factory.. I sold .my stocks of cream and working requisites to the Waipukurau Dairy Company, the proceeds being banked through my ordihary account and used to pay certain pressing accounts, including several butterfat accounts. I consider hy present position is due solely to the failure. of the hank to carrv out its arratigement with me. "My Napier and Clive business "was prospereus enough to- enable me to recover mv position in time. ifi the titles to the business had been released to me in accordance with the arrangement made before I took possssion." (