Meeting of Creditors
A meeting of Messrs John and Duncan Sinclair (of Wainui-o-mata, sawmill proprietors) creditors was held at the Supreme Court House at 2 o’clock this afternoon, and was attended by about a dozen gentlemen, Mr T. Kennedy Macdonald occupying the chair. Mr Devine, of Messrs Buckley, Stafford, and Fitzherbert, was present on behalf of the Messrs Sinclair. The liabilities, which included several mortgages, were represented to be £15,103 19s 1d, while the assets, consisting of sections of land, live stock, standing crops, sawmill plant, smiths’ shops, book debts, &c, were returned at £24,460 10s. A deed, assigning the Messrs Sinclairs’ real and personal property for the benefit of their creditors to Messrs Alexander McKenzie and W. R. Waters, was submitted, and without any discussion was unanimously assented to by the meeting, on the motion of Mr Cleland, seconded by Mr Cudby. The same gentlemen respectively proposed and seconded that the trustees’ remuneration be fixed at the rate of 5 per cent, calculated on the gross proceeds realized. This motion was also agreed to without discussion. A question was then mooted as to whether the Messrs Sinclair wished to make any statement regarding the circumstances that had led to their adopting the present step; but it was agreed by those present that such a statement was not necessary, and the Chairman expressed his opinion that the whole of the creditors united in regretting that circumstances had proved so unfavourable to the debtors as to compel them, through no fault of their own, to assign their property for the benefit of the creditors. Mr Bell, who appeared for several of the mortgagees, intimiated to the trustees that the mortgagees claimed the sawmill as a whole, and he requested the trustees not to take any immediate steps in reference to dealing with any portion of the machinery pending a settlement between the mortgagees and trustees. The meeting terminated with a vote of thanks to the Chairman.
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