The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-04-27 00:00:00

-ii, 18.401 18 0

Defloleney.

It 90,594 16 9

Debts to the amount of £27,500 having been proved,
Mr. S. Provis, of Salisbury, Manager of the Wilts
and Dorset Bank, and Mr. Malachi Fisher, of Bland.
ford, draper, were chosen assignees; and Mr. Welch
was appointed solicitor in the case. An allowance
of per week was granted to each bankrupt. As
there are a large number of creditors for very small
amounts Mr. Welch suggested that a day should be
named for them to attend at Blandford to prove
their debts, to save them the expense of making the
usual proofs. Hi. Honour promised to consider the
matter, and thought it might be so arranged.
The public, in and about the neighbourhood of
Blandford, seem well satisfied with the result, par.
tial as it may be, of the proceedings in the Bank.
ruptcy Court, in reference to Messrs. Oak awl
Snow's failure. It was essential to the effectual
carrying out of a more searching investigation than
even the committee instituted into Oak and Snow's
transactions, that ',deurs. Provis and Fisher should
be appointed trade assignees. Both these gentlemen
were nominated by the committee as qualified by
experience and habit of mind to assist in oonduoting
an examination intended to bring under the cogni-
zance of a court of law a full revelation of banking
enormities. Neither the public generally nor the
creditors of the bank appear to be influenced by a
litigious or vindictive spirit against Oak and Snow
personally, bet they appear more than ever desirous
of obtaining, through the medium of a Bankruptoy
Court, a rigid inquiry as to the manner in which
the bankrupts have disposed of £2,000 per annum
from the commencement of their partnership to the
time of their suspension, not including the profits
arising from their banking transactions for ten
years; which profits, Judging from seine few accounts
that have been examined, were of no inconsiderable
amount, There are, no doubt, many other im.
portent features characterising Oak and Snow's
banking history, especially those marking their
conduct immediately previous to the suspension; but
It appears to us, that the large amount of cash they
withdrew from the concern for their private objects
has never been satisfactorily reconciled with the fact
of their private expenditure or speculative losses ;
and this feature of their balance sheet requires
the closest attention from the gentlemen who are
now officially examining the accounts of the bank.
If it be true, 44 reported, that Messrs. Olyn and Co.,
bankers, London, have given up, for the benefit of
the estate, the £3,000 which were sent down and
returned to them the day before the suspension,
lion, the dividend to the creditors will be materially
increased, especially when calculated in connection
with the sum payable on the policy of insurance held
on the life of the late Mr. Bartlett. We shall re-
frain from giving publicity to any disclosed facts
likely to negative the objects hoped to be secured
by the investigation conducted by the assignees.
A correspondent says that • family in the neigh.
bourhood of Blandford, who have lost their whole
estate by the bank failure of Messrs. Oak and Snow,
received hut week from a few of their former neigh-
bours of the village of Martin, Wiltshire, a cheque
for upwards of £2O, as a token of their sympathy
with them under such a heavy calamity.