Post by nzbc on Feb 18, 2017 17:58:46 GMT 12
"JUST LIKE A MANDARIN"
JUST LIKE A MANDARIN"
Chan, The Chinaman, Did Things In Grand Style CREDITORS NOW LAMENTING
(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Dunedin Representative).
Arriving m Dunedin a few months ago, a cultured and New Zealand-born young Chinaman named William Chan, alias Sum Yoon Lee, with his European "wife" and child, booked m at the Oban Hotel, and it was not long before his perfect English and refined manner gained him the confidence of some of the city's leading business firms.' Chan's prestige, however, was short-lived, and when, at the bankruptcy court recently, he faced a band of creditors, with claims representing some £500, his character ' was the target for a probing interrogation. ; :
IT is not oftea that Europeans find occasion to question the business integrity of a Chinese, but the business plunge that brought William Chan before the Dunedin Official Assignee, Mr. J. M. Adam, provided creditors and their respective legal representatives with grounds for much outspoken misgivings as to the young Celestial's honesty. ' Mr. C. J. Li. White appeared for bankrupt. Presenting Chan's affairs to some twenty or so creditors and counsel, the assignee gave assets as £12, leaving a balance of £400/7/6 owing to unsecured creditors. On bankrupt's behalf, Mr. White handed m a statement which was as follows: — "I am 29 years of age, and unmarried. At the end of 1927 I had a good position offered me to go to Fiji es interpreter. My father, however, persuaded me not to take the position and I left Auckland for Invercargill, to return to my father about December 28, 1927. "On arrival, my father suggested that I should assume control of the market gardens. That is, take over.
"My Father Paid"
! Chin Loon Yep and Wong Long's shares at £80 per share — there were : three shares. "I agreed, and my father paid the amounts. From December, ; 1927, to March, 1928, the gardens i proved a success, and weekly I i banked for the firm from £20 to ; £25; then £16 to £20 after de- > ducting employees' wages. Due to ; the low market ratings for peas : and cauliflowers, and the failure ; of a crop of carrots, cabbages andonions, I found it essential to borrow £50 from Mr. O'Beirne. "Following the failure of the crops mentioned, we lost about 15,000 lettuces, half an acre of potatoes and about 6000 cauliflowers which had all gone to seed. About August I was confined for fully 8 weeks to my room, the result of an accident. I was again compelled to borrow from Mr. Preston (£80). "My father then took over the gardens. I had not paid one penny to him for the shares or wages — not that he desired wages. I remained until December 30. Father lent me £ 2 for train fare. I then commenced the Stuart Street (Dunedin) shop, receiving credit from various merchants. "Although at first I had considerable expenditure, the Stuart Street shop was a good little business, and I am sure that had I had the opportunity and time I would have worked up a good trade. "However, I was so foolish as to launch out into further expense by
taking a lease of a shop m North-East Valley. This place was, from the very start, an appalling: failure., . . . Bailiffs ultimately seized the stock which was left m the shop." Continuing, the statement related how Chan had purchased a car for the purpose of travelling round the country with silk goods. The car had run hinv into considerable expense, and was 'only two weeks m his possession when seized by the motor firm. Later, lie purchased another car oh the hire-purchase system, but that also, he stated, had run him into heavy expenditure, and was subsequently, seized. ' . . *.. ■ "With regard to Butterworth's account,", the statement read on, "all the invoices for the silks were destroyed accidentally. I do not know the amount of my liability to them, but/think it is about £60. ... "Just b.efore the bankruptcy, a oredi-* 1 tor seized all my stock m the Stuart Street shop, thus necessitating my closing' down. "I am now out of work and m a poor state of health owing my having "received a bayonet wound m the Chinese Revolution m 1916. . -''. . I would not have taken on the silk business had it hot been for Henry Lum persuading me to take on his business when he sold me the first car. . . . . "Although legally unmarried, I consider myself attached according to Qhinese fashion to a young lady >by whom I have had one child (aged 3% years). She is also again about to become a mother, and it is my intention to marry the lady as soon as she is legally free to do so." Being sworn, Chan declared that the statement was true. , To a series of questions by the assignee, he stated that he had a few pounds cash when he started business- m Dunedin. Henry Lum, and a European named McDowell, had been employed by him to go into the country hawking the silks. -, The Assignee: How did you get all this credit?
Chan: I told people that my father had been m business here before. Is that how you got the credit? — My father is an honorable man. The Assignee: Most of your race are. Expressing astonishment that within a period of three months bankrupt had accumulated debts amounting to well over £400, and had paid back practically nothing, the assignee pressed for information as" to what had become of the proceeds of the sales. Chan's replies were to the effect that Lum, who had been a chef at the Pembroke Hotel, had "let him down." Lum and McDowell had both received goods from Butterworth's on behalf of bankrupt, but had not rendered any accounts of salesi So far as he was concerned, Chan only knew of about £60 worth of goods from Butterworths, and the proceeds of this stock had been absorbed m expenses. Two small note-books, which were handed to the assignee, represented Chan's business records. - Bankrupt would not say that Lum had giyen away any of> the goods, nor would he hazard a suggestion as to what might have become of the proceeds over £60. Personally, he had not given "away any material, nor had he any hidden away.
An Oxford Man?,
Much cross-questioning by the assignee elicited little information beyond the fact that Chan had been put to large expense through motor repairs, and that he had no means of tracing the sales made by the other two men. On behalf of clients, Mr. F. Z. Moore said that Chan had represented to certain of his or editors v that he was an Oxford man and a member of a London club. . , ' He had told business men that his father was a retired merchant m Auckland, and the owner of 13 shops m the North Island. Chan, said Mr. Moore, had misled these people by producing references which were h;s father's. « j "He was stopping at the Oban Hotel with a woman — supposedly his wife — and a dear little child, and a maid," stated the; lawyer. "He came m late to dinner one night when everyone was seated, and strolled m looking like a mandarin." Chan: Are you sure I had, a maid? . Mr. Moore: She' was a smart little girl about sixteen — T don't know whether she was your maid or not. It was ; also stated by counsel, that Chan had introduced liUm to certain business men, and a^ked that he be given credit. The business men demurring, Chan had stated that tie
would ''go bond" for Lum if it were required. Further discussion followed as to Chan's method of obtaining credit from certain Dunedin firms, and some very direct questioning came from several quarters. Chan admitted that he had said to some people that his father was m Auckland, but he had only said that he was "his father's son,"-and had no intention of defrauding by misrepresentation. A creditor: Who is your father? The Assignee: His father is a wellknown and decent old man. Mr. Smithy (to Chan)r You said he had plenty of money? Chan evaded the query by answering that he had no idea what his father was worth. Mr. White: His father had enough money to send him to Sydney to be educated. > A creditor (to Chan): Have you been m gaol? Chan: That has nothing to do with this — yes. Asked about the amount of £25 owing to the Auckland law courts
Had Been "Co-Re" under the name of Leoni, Chan, after hesitation, .admitted that he* had been mixed up as co-re, m an undefended divorce case. "In 1924, when I came back from Sydney," he said, "a young lady came to me and said that her mother had been ill-treating her. I let her come to my place and looked after her. ' "Later, she went away and got married. A child was born— -not my. child— but her husband accused her that it was a Chinaman's child ... she came to me, and I looked after her." ' It was intimated by bankrupt's counsel that it was his client's , intention to marry the woman as soon as the law allowed. After further discussion upon various aspects of the matter before the 'meeting, one creditor rose and suggested that the matter be handed over for the police to deal with. >"" '1 think we must all admit that we have been taken down badly," he observed, "and J suggest that action be taken for his having obtained goods by fraud." v ■ Subsequently, the following motion was carried without opposition: "On the grounds of trading recklessly and obtaining goods by fraud, the matter be handed over to the Crown Solicitor to decide the question of prosecuting." "You had better see,, your countrymen and see what you can get out of them as soon as possible," remarked the assignee, when Chan intimated that he thought his compatriots and relations would stand to him.
NZ TRUTH, ISSUE 1221, 26 APRIL 1929
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTR19290426.2.7?query=lum%20chin