Appendix G (1).
REPORT OF THE OFFICIAL RECEIVER AND REGISTRAR OF TRADE MARKS AND PATENTS FOR THE YEAR 1935.
BANKRUPTCY
AND
COMPANIES WINDING-UP.
New Business.
Fourteen petitions in bankruptcy were presented during the year, seven by creditors and seven by debtors, as against a total of twenty-three petitions in the previous year.
2. In companies winding-up, eight petitions were filed. Of these one was dismissed, one lapsed owing to failure to comply with statutory requirements, in five cases compulsory winding-up orders were made, and one petition is still outstanding.
In the previous year nine petitions were filed, of which two were dismissed, and two withdrawn. In the remaining five cases compulsory orders were made.
3. The total assets collected amounted to $363,743.32. The liabilities as estimated by the debtors, amounted to $1,526,990.63. These figures, which include both bankruptcies and companies liquidations, show a very substantial increase in assets collected, and a considerable decrease in the estimated value of the liabilities, on comparison with the figures for the year 1934. A table of comparison appears overleaf. The substantial increase in assets collected is mainly accounted for by the fact that some $180,000 has been accumulated in the liquidation of the American Oriental Finance Corporation. Debtors' estimates of liabilities are always only approximate, and frequently totally unreliable.
4. Four salaried employees filed petitions in bankruptcy during the year under review as compared with one in the year 1934. Failures included two Chinese rubber shoe factories, one dispensary, one hardware firm, one manufactured goods firm, one import and export firm, one restaurant, one timber firm, one hotel, and one member of the Stock Exchange.
A greater number of business failures occurred in the year 1934, and the inference may be drawn that the industrial and commercial depression referred to in the Department's Report for that year tended to become less severe in the year now under review.