The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit. THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1883. The Official Assignee.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 999, 19 July 1883, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit. THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1883. The Official Assignee.

Our old friend “the official assignee,” who had disappeared from view for several years, is again to the front and making a conspicuous figure in the Bankruptcy Bill now before the General Assembly. Since that Bill has been generally welcomed in the Lower House we are half afraid that the official assignee is about once more to become a power in the land. The public has a short memory, and we may as well remind it of the fact that the official assignee in bankruptcy, under another name, was tried for a long period and found miserably wanting. Two diverse opinions could scarcely be obtained on the subject in 1876, when the existing Debtors and Creditors Act was passed, and it was with the full approbation of the mercantile community, at any rate, that the system of leaving the creditors of a bankrupt to appoint a trustee to administer the estate was adopted. That system, we maintain, is the proper and sound one. The creditors surely know their own interests : there is always an ample field of choice amongst either the creditors themselves or the numerous certificated accountants in bankruptcy who are to be found in every town : and if the creditors unwisely exercise that choice or decline to exercise it at all, remitting it to the Registrar of the Court to appoint a certificated accountant as trustee, they have but themselves to blame, and they arc the only sufferers if anything goes wrong. What have the public at large, or the Government, to do with the matter ? Simply nothing at all. The proposal of the Government is to abolish creditors’ trustees altogether, and apj

point in their place, in each large town, an official assignee, who, according to Mr Conolly, “ will be a public officer, having a public office, having no other employment, and being remunerated by salary. It may be a question whether, in addition to the salary, any inducement should be held out by his receiving a bonus where there are dividends to a certain extent. It is not intended to propose that he should receive fees, although we shall make charges against estates sufficient to recoup, or more than recoup, the salaries of the official assignees.” In other words, the Government intend to make a profit out of bankrupt estates, and thereby lessen the sum available for distribution amongst the creditors. This, however, is not all. Besides the official assignee, the administration of each estate is to be confided to two “ supervisors,” to be appointed by the creditors, and we may presume that the supervisors will be awarded by a little commission for their trouble. We are told that the cost of bankruptcy proceedings is to be lessened by this Bill; but how economy is to be effected by lading every petty estate with the expense of an official assignee and two supervisors, with the Government thrusting in its hand and picking out a plum or two for itself, surpasses our comprehension. It appears to us that a number of very nice Government situations will be created by sundry mercantile gentlemen in Christchurch and other large towns, and that creditors generally will have to pay for their support. To country places like Ashburton the official assignee system, as embodied in this Bill, will prove extremely unjust. Bankruptcies, unfortunately, are numerous in this district; yet, at the same time, not numerous enough to warrant the appointment of an official assignee for the Ashburton district alone, if the office is to be a self-supporting one. Hence, every estate which went into the Bankruptcy Court at Ashburton would fall into the hands of an official assignee at Christchurch, to the benefit, no doubt, of a few persons in that city, but greatly to the inconvenience and detriment of the Ashburton creditors. The Bill, indeed, seems to be framed in the interests of business men in the large towns. The Chambers of Commerce have been permitted to exercise far too much influence upon the measure. Chambers of Commerce are useful institutions in their way, and their opinions on mercantile subjects ought not to be wholly disregarded, but they have a knack of believing that the mercantile legislation of the colony should be framed with a viewl.to the promotion of their own especial interests.

The anniversary soiree of the Ashburton Lodge of the 1.0. O. E. ,M. U., takes place in the Oddfellows’ Hall, this evening.

Lovers of rinking assembled in great force in the Town Hall last evening, and dancing was kept up merrily for several hours.

The Ashburton Poultry Society announce that a number of special prizes will be awarded at the forthcoming'show, in addition to those already advertised. A meeting of the Wanganui ratepayers yesterday resolved to petition the Government for a division of the Wanganui county into two counties, to be called the Wangahue and Wanganui, the river to be the dividing'boundary. A child about two years bid, a son of Joseph Ulrich, a German residing at East Oxford, was burnt to death on Tuesday morning. His clothes caught firo during the absence of his mother, and the child died after two hours' agony. Our Wellington correspondent telegraphs that authority has now been given for leasing all the plantation reserves for fourteen years, subject to the necessary provisions for planting. This will enable a large tract of unimproved land being made use of in this county. At the Police Court this morning, bef re Mr T. Bullock, J. P., John Moore was brought up charged with being drunk in a public place, and also with committing a nuisance. He was fined 5s for the first offence and 10s for the second, with the alternative of 30 hours’ imprisonment. The Colonial Bank’s report for the halfyear shows the net profits for the halfyear to be L 18,335 16s 3d, and the amount available for distribution is L1U,028 14s lid. Of this L 14.000 will be absorbed in paying a dividend of 7 per cent., L 2.000 will be carried to the reserve fund, and L 3,028 14s lid will be carried forward.

A peculiar mishap occurred at Port Chalmers to the Peninsula, a small harbor steamer. She was lying alongside a small wharf, and on Tuesday night there was an exceedingly high tide. Her paddle box caught the top of the wharf, and when the tide fell she remained out of the water. Yesterday when the tide rose again she filled and sank. Mr P. M. Willmott’s Comedy Combination Company will be in Ashburton next week, the opening night of the season here being announced for Monday next. The troupe has just concluded a successful tour of the North Island, and as the members are well known to playgoers in this town we have no doubt the hall;will bi crowded every evening during their stay.

The New Zealand Shipping Company are advised by cable that the British Queen arrived at Plymouth on the 16th inst. Her refrigerators had worked well, and her meat was in good condition. The Doric is to leave London this month for Auckland, Wellington and Lyttelton. She has already 210 passengers booked, and brings also 250 Government immigrants. The Fenstanton is to leave London on the 25th for Port Chalmers and Lyttelton.

Onr Ohertsey correspondent writes : “ Much needed improvements are in progress in the Ohertsey township at present. A gravelled footpath is in course of construction, leading from the schoolhouse to the railway station. From this main track an offset footpath fis carried from Child’s smithy to the Beach road. This convenience will, doubtless, be much appreciated by the settlers in the district. The work has been done at the instance of the South Rakaiaßoad Board.” Only about 60 persons put in an appearance at the Oddfellows’ Hall la«t evening to hear what Madame Lotti Wilmot had to say upon the subject of “ Courtship and Marriage,” and judging from the hearty applause which greeted many of the hits she made, her audience seemed to thoroughly appreciate her effort* in the direction of assisting poor bachelors out of many of their difficulties. For the benefit of those among the audience who were in a position to marry, she told them when to court, whom to court and how to court. Madame would like to see a tax of ten pounds a year imposed on all bachelors above twentyfive years of age, as the country could then be populated from a stock we knew something about, instead of paying large sums of money to emigration agents to send out a class of people the Old Country was glad to get rid of,

The blue ribbon of Coursing the Watarloo Cup, will not this year fall lo a Canterbury hound. Of the twenty-six of the representatives of this province only four were left in at the conclusion of yesterday’s sport, viz, Bannerman, Clio, Obstacle and Box, and to-day all of these were beaten.

The special services in connection with the Wesleyan Church, which are now being held in Ashburton, are well attended both at the midday prayer meetings and evening services. This evening the Rev A. M. Beattie, Presbyterian minister, will deliver the usual address in the Cameron street church. The Auckland Frozen Meat Company absorbs Fisher and Go’s (Limited) butchering and tinning business. The D rectors join the new Board. Mr Banks (Managing Director) puts LIO,OOO in the new concern, and other Directors take a large interest in it. A powerful Board has been formed. Mr Banks has gone to America and England to send out experts in tinning and preserving, and the best appliances for freezing. It is hoped to have chilled chambers, both on the East and West Coast, and a suitable steamer to carry meat to Auckland, where provision will be made for ample storage, so that steamers for England can have cargo ready and be loaded in a few hours. Efforts will be made to have operations in full working order in a year.

A special meeting of the Timaru Chamber of Commerce was held yesterday to protest against the charge of 4 per cent, made by the Underwriters' Association at Christchurch for insuring the cargo of the ship Rangitikei whilst in harbor at Timaru. The Association made a distinction between vessels that can be fully loaded inside the breakwater and those which, drawing too much water to permit of this, can be partly loaded inside and have to be moved in the roadstead to complete their loading. The charge in case of the former class of vessels is 37s Gd, and in the latter 80s per cent, t hese rates were fixed by the Underwriters’ Association in February last, since when two or three vessels of larger class have been loaded at Timaru, but this is the first occasion on which local shippers have made their own arrangements for insuring, or the first time they have made proposals to the Christchurch Association, or the protest would have been made sooner. The Chamber passed a resolution asking the Association to reduce their higher rate, and informing them that if they adhere to it the inhabitants will underwrite the harbor risk themselves at a more reasonable figure. The speakers laid great stress upon the improvemerts effected in the port since the casualties of last year in the extension of toe breakwater, the laying down of moorings, and the purchase of a tug, the latter especially being dwelt upon as a valuable means of securing the safety of thejvessels. A considerable sum has already been promised in case the Association decline to lower the rate, and it is anticipated that there would be no difficulty in obtaining the full amount of security required to underwrite the whole cargo.

Inaction of the kidneys and urinary organs causes the worst of diseases which Hop Bitters cures. Read.—[Advt.] 4 Wells’ “Rough on Corns,” —Ask for Wells’ “ Rough on Corns.” 7Quick relief, complete, permanent cure. Corns, warts, bunions. Moses, Moss and Co., Sydney, General Agents. 3 Holloway’s Ointment and Pilis.— Glad Tidings.—Some constitutions have a tendency to rheumatism, and are throughout the year borne down by its protracted torture. Let such sufferers bathe the afflicted parts with warm brine, and afterwards rub in this soothing Ointment. They will find it the best means of lessening their agony, and, assisted by Holloway’s Pills, the surest way of overcoming their disease. More need not be said than to request a few days’ trial of this safe and soothing treatment, by which the disease will ultimately be completely swept away. Pains tthat would make a giant shudder arc assuaged without difficulty by Holloway’s easy and inexpensive remedies, which comfort by moderating the throbbing vessels and calming the excitednerves. — Advt. Wanted Known—That J. Meech is importing all his own goods, which embles him to sell cheaper than any other furnishing house in Ashburton. He has every class of furniture to suit all parties, from the kitchen to the drawing-room. All kinds of cutlery, crockeryware, fenders and fire-irons, iron beadsteads, carpets, table cloths, matting, and druggetting. A variety of tinware and other cooking utensils, etc. A splendid lot of Vienna chairs in walnut and maple. Feathers, flock, horsehair, and wool for furniture and mattrasses —in fact every article for house furnishing. Owing to facilities afforded to him, enables him to sell cheaper than if in East street. Furniture exchanged, and parties selling out will find that he gives the highest price for furniture. All kinds of furniture repaired; practical workmen kept. Agent for the celebrated Dunedin blind-maker. Spring window rollers kept in stock. Carvings and turnery sold to the trade. —J. Meech. Note the address, next Bullock’s Arcade.— [A. DVT.]