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.