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From the Borough of Greenwich Free Press, 6 March,
1858.
BANKRUPTCY COURT, March 3.
(Before Mr. Commissioner Goulburn.)
IN RE J. HAWKINS.
The bankrupt was a licensed victualler, late of Lee now of
Deptford. Debts, £900, Assets: good debts. £32; policy of insurance.
£50.
The bankrupt's Solicitor said his client had been 20 years in
trade.
The Commissioner:— what, in the same house?
The Solicitor replied, no, the bankrupt had kept several
public-houses. For the last public-house he had paid a great deal of
money, and turn lost seriously by it.
The Commissioner:— Some people seem to labour under the idea that
public houses are of so much importance and of so much value that
any money may be given for them.
The Bankrupt stated that 20 years ago he had a capital of £5,000.
His father had been for 20 years a publican, and had left £10,000.
The Commissioner said, he observed that was as usual in such
cases the brewer and distiller had taken care of themselves the
bankrupt had obtained £500 from an insurance office, and he ought
then at once to have called his creditors together, knowing that he
could not go on in trade, and to have made a fair and equitable
distribution amongst them.
The Bankrupt said that the cause of his failure was that the
house, he last went into had not fulfilled his expectations. The
neighbourhood was a new one, and he had hoped to make a trade, and
that his position would be daily improving. In 1854, he had a
considerable surplus, £300 in cash, besides property worth £2,000.
Commissioner:— The bankrupt kept no books?
The Solicitor.— He kept the ordinary accounts of a licensed
victualler.
Commissioner.— Is there anything in the act which excuses a
licensed victualler from proper books.
Solicitor.— No; but he keeps accounts sufficiently satisfactory.
Each day’s till-takings were put down. The ordinary form of
book-keeping was out of the question.
Commissioner:— On the ground, I suppose, that their heads are not
very clear, and that they have recourse to the tap?
The Solicitor.— Not at all. The bankrupt could not keep any other
books than he had done.
Commissioner:— A short time must intervene between this time and
when the bankrupt may again rush into business. Let the certificate
(second class) he suspended for six mouths from November 2, and
protection be granted.
Bankrupt.— I had an ailing wife, and I brought up a family of ten
children. We are almost starving now.
Commissioner.— I cannot help that, nor do I see how granting an
immediate certificate would remedy that, in such cases as this the
brewer and distiller get almost everything, leaving little or
nothing for the other creditors.
Suspended accordingly.
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