Spylaw Run was taken up by pastoral lease in 1857 by brothers Frederick and Henry Clapcott who failed to sufficiently stock the run. Messrs Reid and Robert R. A. Doolan, stock and station salesmen, took over briefly before selling the lease to Charles de Vere Teschemaker. Teschemaker owed the Clapcott brothers �1301 14s 2d for ewes purchased with the lease. The Run was sub-leased to W H S Roberts in April 1860, however Spylaw was then taken over by John and James Schlotel, in partnership with Teschemaker, running small numbers of sheep and cattle. Teschemaker and the Schlotel's petitioned Vogel in May 1864 when Spylaw was included as an infected district under the Cattle Bill, asking the proclamation to be withdrawn. Unfortunately Teschemaker was not a good businessman or manager of finances and appeared in the insolvency courts in May 1865 giving reasons of depreciation in the value of stock and loss of sheep from death by natural causes for his demise. At a meeting of creditors in Dunedin on June 6th his debts were listed at �21,570, assets �16,125 including �8,800 real and personal estate displaying a deficiency of �5,445.
By deed dated 29th June 1864 Teschemaker mortgaged Waipahi Station together with 3,500 sheep, 250 cattle and 100 calves for �12,045 6s 2d with Dalgety, Rattray and Co, (Edmund Simmonds Dalgety, George Buckley and James Rattray) subject to a prior mortgage he had with Reid and Robert R A Doolan for �1000; a total of three Bills of Exchange. Due December 1864 Teschemaker still owed �6,155 16s of the bills of exchange in August 1866. In order for him to meet the second Bill he applied to Messrs Driver and Co (Henry Driver and John MacLean) who agreed to advance �2685 for the purpose, provided Reid and Doolan consented to secure repayment, therefore authorising them to sell Waipahi Station and stock, and deduct their cash advantage from the proceeds. On 31st October 1864 this was agreed and the �2685 was then to be repaid. A sale was entered into with Walter Frederick Stevens for the station and sheep, not the cattle for the sum of �4500, one-quarter payable immediately in cash with the balance to be secured with interest by three bills of exchange. One of the bills was to be endorsed by A G Fisher and Co., however the cash and bills were to be held by Driver and MacLean, as agents for Teschemaker and Stevens.
The sale never proceeded because Stevens became insolvent, as did the firm of Fisher and Co. In June 1865 the run and sheep were sold to Harry Carr Robison for �4200, a sum short of �300. After Reid and Doolan were paid James Rattray of Dalgety, Rattray and Co., insisted on additional security of the shortfall in the remaining debt. Teschemaker was co-partner with James Bartholomew Schlotel in Spylaw Station and the stock, therefore it was proposed to raise a loan on the security of Spylaw, which occurred by agreement in January 1865 and by transaction effected March 10th 1865. The amount advanced to Teschemaker and Schlotel was �7000.
Teschemaker left the matter in the hands of Reid and Doolan writing, "My liabilities to your firm, and overdrafts at the Bank of New South Wales, and mortgage in favor [sic] of Doolan, seem to me to be the first matters requiring your attention. When you have settled with the purchasers of Waipahi run, and you can otherwise clear my liabilities by the �7000, please pay the nett proceeds over to Messrs Dalgety, Rattray and Co." Teschemaker still owed Doolan for some wethers he purchased in May 1864, making the total owing to Reid and Doolan �3238 15s. But the amounts were Clapcott bothers for ewes: �1301 14s 2d, Doolan on the first mortgage of Waipahi: �1101, to Dalgety: �1000, to the Bank of New South Wales: �371 2s 6d, a total of �3773 16s 8d. The additional debt to Reid and Doolan exceeded the funds and did not include additional claims Reid and Doolan were owed.
Teschemaker at no time seemed to accurately balance his liabilities against the way or means to deal with them and he never knew to what extent he could procure assistance from Schlotel. The inability of Teschemaker to repay his debts also came about with the failure of Reid and Doolan to deal with the sale of wethers to reduce the debt and the deposit by Stevens of �400 to be used against the debt. When Teschemaker attempted to gather information to pass the examination for insolvency before the Supreme Court under the Debtors and Creditors Act, 1862, he was still unclear whom he owed money to.
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