The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-05-25 00:00:00

11k2,1&2

varied programme of performances, and tbe several
members of the band ere making the most corn.
mendable exertion' to give @addiction, and their
efforts will no doubt blue summer, be crowned with
pre•eminent success

BLANDFORD.

FAILURE OF THE BLANDFORD OLD BANE.

"Figures," said Lord Portman at a meeting of
Oak and Snow's creditors, "could be made to prove
anything; he preferred facts." Let us see whether
the figures in the balance-sheet laid by Mr. Maynard
before the Bankruptcy Court in Basinghallatreet on
Friday, the 17th ult., do not tell even some startling
facts—facts which, compared with the revelations of
commercial delinquency lately made, present fes.
tures of unparalleled perplexity and doubt.

. .
The total of Oak and Snow's liabilities is shown to
amount to £50,210, to meet which there are probable
available assets amounting to £19,251, the difference
between the sum owed and the means for payment
being £30,959. It further appears that the bank-
rupts have taken from the estate in overdrafts and
drawings £18,392, sustained losses to the amount of
£22,581, paid trade expenses £4,518, and realized
£12,842 profit, making a total in the whole of
£58,233, less £19,251 assets, spent, lost, or Squan-
dered. That a firm holding on an average £40,000
to £50,000 of loaned working capital, by which it
realized in 10 years £12,000 profit, should fail, is
surprising enough; but when it is considered that
Oak and Snow have not only used up and lost
£12,000 profit, but in addition to that rum their
estate is deficit £30,959, out of total liabilities
amounting to £50,210, it becomes a question of ex-
treme credibility to every common sense mind.
Let the items of lasses and trade expenses go for
what they are worth; still we have left the two
items of overdrafts and drawings swelled to the
sum of £18,392 afforded by the concern in ten years
for the individual purposes of the partners, and, in
spite of all, bankruptcy is the ultimate issue. The
question naturally occurs here, what has become of
the money! It is but reasonable to conclude that
the annual drawings and the overdrafts must
have been received and applied by the partners to
their private uses, and were abstractions from the
real or nominal capitol of the bank. Such being
most probably the case, what showing have we in
the balance-sheets of the private affairs of the bank-
rupts, satisfactorily to prove that the sum of £18,392
was ever lost or absorbed by them for their private
purposes! We find on looking ,d the financial detail
given of Mr. Oak's private estate, that he lost £2,368
by railway shares, and that Mr. Snow's loss by similar
investments was only £480; and if £5OO each per
annum for ten years be allowed for the expenses of
their private establishments—a sum greater than
each partner appeared to spend—still £5,544 would
have to be accounted for. Colonel Waugh over-
draws his banking_ account .£200,020, snismaialy

demonstrate reckless expenditure all but on a par
with his liability. The merchant fails and the
ruinous depreciation in the market value of the
article in which he trades explains the waste of his
capital. And thus bankruptcy proceedings gene-
rally enforce disclosures of the mode in which
deficit assets have been appropriated; and by so
doing give a partial satisfaction to the minds of
creditors. Will such be the result of the inquiry
now pending in Oak and Snow's case! We believe
not. Neither the divulgements of a Bankruptcy
Court, the history of their private doings for the
last ten years, nor the most rigid scrutiny of books
or documents will ever satisfactorily explain to the
public mind the mysterious monetary transactions
of men who abstracted from their estate for private
purposes £18,392 in ten years, and ultimately failed
with liabilities amounting to £50,210, and assets
only covering £19,250. If the bankrupts had been
extravagant in their households, their social habits
characterised by luxurious and expensive excesses,
and their private debts cumulative in their character
or excessive in their amount, then the key to un-
lock the riddle of their monetary absorption would
not be wanting; but when it is known that the
reverse was the case, that their home and social ex-
penditure was ec“nomically governed, that their
private debts were few and unimportant, and still
more, that the banking business they conducted was
comparatively inexpensive in its machinery, its
legitimate transaction—in a measure freed from even
ordinary banking risks—and its returns bearing not
only a living but • fortune-making profit, it is a
reasonable question to the public here, what has
become of the money! Mr. Maynard expressed an
opinion at a meeting of Oak and Snow's creditors
that if he had had the bank to manage he would
have made the profits much greater than the bank-
rupts had made them. If the want of implied
proper business management existed in the profit
department as shown by the books, would a want of
a like proper management in other departments—a
slovenly mode of book-keeping, an imprudent laxity
in enforcing payments or making advances—reasona-
bly account for the bankrupts' losses, or, still more
important, explain the uses made of the drawings
and overdraft! The creditors look to the Bankruptcy
Court for a reasonable solution of these mysterious
questions, and will be scarcely satisfied if a bank-
ruptcy process does not obtain it. We trust such
will be the result ; but we believe the creditors
will be disappointed in their expectations.—Cor-
respondent.

REMOVAL OF THE CORN MARAET.
The proposed removal of the corn market is calling
forth the energy and constructive genius of the cor-
porate body in this town. The comfortless and in-
convenient place in which the buying and selling of
corn have hitherto been conducted has long been a
subject of complaint on the part of many of the far-
mers attending this market, and is now condemned
by the whole body. This united feeling of disappro-
bation having been expressed by the agriculturists
to the Corporation, backed by a memorial suggest-
ing the appropriation of the butchers' sheds for the pur-
poses of a corn market, have led the Mayor and his col-
leagues to entertain the subject, and devise alterations
likely to meet the wishes of their agricultural friends.
The contemplated changes will, if carried into exe-
cution, not only secure the comfort and convenience
of the farmers, but will also provide a well-propor-
tioned room, measuring 80 feet by 36 feet, for any
public object, capable of holding an audience num-
bering 800 or 1,000 persons—the latter of no slight
importance in a county having fewer large public
rooms than most others. The roof will be con-
'Eructed dome-shape and be wholly formed of alight
iron frame work filled in with glees similar to the
many elegant structures now found in several
parte of England. Should this improvement be
effected, it is intended to open a way through the
Townhall in the direction of the present staircase
leading to the Magistrates room, so that the entrance
to the new Market-house would be opened to the
view of persons paseing through or standing before
the gates of the Townhall. This last named altera-
tion will not only give a more light and airy ap-
pearanoe to the Townhall and add oonsiderably to
it. architectural beauty, but will also expose to view,
at its rear, the most attractive part of the Market-
house proposed to be erected, and provide a straight
and convenient way of amass to it. No estimate of
the expenses to be incurred in carrying out the altera-
tions has been obtained; but we presume, from the
unanimous opinion expressed in favour of the move-
ment by the inhabitanta of the town and neighbour-
hood, that no reasonable sum will be denied. All
persons living in this district, and especially those
mimed in business, have a dived or indirect in-
terse in the matter, and we would emphatically im-
press upon the minds of the tradesmen of the town,
whether living in the hundred or borough, that it is
their duty and interest to aid by their pockets anit
influence in carrTing out the alterations contemplated
by the Corporation. Town Weds interests should be
as carefully watched end guarded as those of the in-
dividual, and if not thus oared for, will be soon cer-
tain to assume ii.. flourishing egyearanoe.