NullPointerException When Creating New LibreOffice Database File

When I tried to create a new database file in LibreOffice (version 3.6.2 on Mac), I encountered the following error:

SQL State: S1000
Error code: -27

file input/output error java.lang.NullPointerException.properties

The reason was that I had added a newer version of hsqldb file in the classpath.  The one I added was hsqldb-2.2.6.  It seemed that LibreOffice expected a version of 1.8.0.

After removing those hsqldb files from the classpath, I could create a new database file again.