ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Auckland Times, Volume 3, Issue 113, 11 March 1845, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To His Excellency Captain Fi>zroy, It. N., Governor of New Zealand. Sir. —Your Excellency having given notice of your iuten'ion to bring in a Bill to abolish imprisonment for Debt makes it almost unnecessary that I should address you at, all upon this subject, but it is imposi-

sible to avoid drav ing your Excellency's attention to the mischievous tendency of the present Imprisonment for Debt Ordi- , nance. Amongst the many inefficient and s'upid measures which owe their paternity to the learned Attorney General no one of them ranks so high, for the total absence of every useful provision which ought to characterize a measure o this desc iption, as the ordinance in question; besides whi<-h it has the novelty of possessing, in an eminent degree, all thos j principles which have been declared, not by one, but by repeated Committees of both Houses of the ttiiiish Legislature, to be most pernicious in, their effects—much nehind the civilization o the age—alike destructive of the interests of debtor and creditor - and, in short, to engender gross fraud and dishonesty These opinions, unanimously expressed, have been acted upon, from time to time, until the subject of the law of debtor and creditor may now be said to be tolerably perfect. It might be deemed presumptuous in me thus to animadvert upon any measure, of the learned Attorney Generai's, which has received the sanction of the Legislative Council, but when the observations I offer upon this measu e may be said, hot to be mine, but hose of the combined wisdom of the two first legislative assemblies in the world, I may well feel no delicacy in pu'ting them orth. Ii has been the labou of many of the highly polished and truly eminent jurists of modern times to purify the Statu e Book of Great Britain from many of its barbarous enactments, and none have undergone more discussion and levisiou than the laws affecting debtor and creditor Continuous efforts have been maing, fo in Grea' Britain, by its iegis atuie, hat the law of ar est should be abolished, and after at leas thity years' experience of various Insolvent and Bankrupt enactmc'ts, the wisdom o r the British Houses of Parliament has entirely a'-ohshed Imprisonment for Debt, and substituted, in its place, effective Insolvent ami Bankrupt laws It would have been qui e incredible (did not the favt stare us in the face) that any professiona 1 gentleman holding, in these enlightened times, the offl:e of Attorney General in a new country, untrammelled by ancient law and usages, should have proposed and suppor ed any enactment having for its object the barbarous Imp isonmeut for Debt, alike destructive of the best interests of debtor and creditor. Indeed the more this oidinance is looked into, the mure exfiaordina>y it appears that its palpab e defects should have escaped the keen observation and clear head of you Excellency. It is not my intention to go through this ordinance at any gveat length, as a new bill upon the su jec is abont to be presented, but will your Excellency d i me the favour just to look loc auses 2 and 4. By these it will appear that the. Court have the power, only, to discharge a prisoner from his detaining creditor; thus snppos;ng a man to have twenty creditors (and this would I e a .very small numbe for many persons in business) and only one to take him in execution at a time, the teuder mercies of this ordinance wou'd just, give him. at the least, five years' imprisonment! Now look at c ause 6 —" \i the hearing ! the prisoner shall deliver in his statement o> debts due to him, &c ," so that it were idle to talk of opposition, as the creditor could not l*y any possibility have had any means of testing the truth of the s:a ernent by enquiry, as he won d have had no opportunity of seeing it before the hour of discharge. Then, again, he (the detaining creditor) is entitled to the debts due to the prisoner, to pay Ins own fi-st. Thus tins clause offers an inducement to do that which it is must desirable shou d be avoided —namely, a resoit to law, to the | lejudice of a man's credi ors genera ly ; and many a one who, but for such a clause, might ob ain time and thus pay all demands upon him is preven ed doing so, to his own ruin and his tredi ors loss, in consequence ot some one creditor suing him who feels it his duty to do so in consequence of the principle, here laid down, of "first cone, fbst served 1 - a principle as mischievous in theory as it is dangerous in practice Clause 7 directs that a Power of At orney be executed by the prisoner to enable his detaining credi;or to sue for such debts as nny be due to .the prisoner—a clumsy contrivance at best ; yet your Excel ency will secrecy credit that there is no power, under this ordinance, to compel tke prisoner to deliver up his books and papers, or to furnish any evidence or v tw/ier, by which the detaining creditor u,ay be enallcd to avail himself of the ben-

efit thus assigned lo him! J! Was there ever such legislation ? Then comes the beautiful illustration of clause 7,—tha' supposing a prisoner to be twenty times sent to gaoEbaiore he can be discharged he must execute twenty Powers of Attorney to enable the detaining creditors to recover nothing at all, tbe debts having been assigned to the fist creditor !!! In this way I could go th ough all the clauses of this pre iotis piece ot ody, nt I will not further take up your Excellency's time than to lemark that elans* 13 compels 3 he creditor to pay tour shillings a weelt'j hot to the debtor, bu' to the gadtr, who supplies tin prisoner with the ordinary gaol allowince, •- which, costing the gove anient 2s. 5 0i1.,. leases (hem a profit of«is.' ; 0«-d —nearly 100 per cent; this co.nes out of the pocket of the creditor!! 1 The gteut objects of an insolvent Bill should be to abolish Imprisonment for Debt —to he ease the facility by which the whole of an Inso'vent's estate and efi'-cts might be m ide available to his creditors—and to inflict severe punishment for fraud and dishonesty. It surely can be no difficulty to prepare silch a measure. I could with but litt e difficulty, tranie one that. I helive wou'd answer af the : urposes, beiug both simple and effective, and which might lie wor«ed at an exnerise of less ban £2OO annually. So much, then, for the Imprisonment !or Debt Ordinance;

Cattle TkTespass Ordinances. If Your Excellency w II be «o jjood as to look to lite first of til se Ordinances passed in Sessi u 2, yon will perceive thai it confers no power of *« J mnoondine," and without siieli a power anv Ordiiiat.ce for '** Cattle Trespass ' is worse than useess. Suppose f«»r mslaiee I rind sundry h'ad of cattle airionjsj tnv crops, and whirl is mo e than j>tobal>le I do not know to whom they belong, how am I to obtain rptiaral|oi| t*>r the injury I have sustained ? I 'iiuol no* d' tain and rui-ound the cattle upon my grounds, for the Ordinance be- ■< ov<-s no such rtglit, and no provision is made for a public I rutouiidinij, { must ihereftre pettorce, be content with my loss; ttiastij i.h as aciv detention of the cut'le would subject me u> an action for damages Now th n eoaius «be Cattle rreujiasu Amendment O dinanee. and not. •'Pitsl oi'llnti lite great; in CO"»eitieoee created by the want ot a clause empowering- Ott- inponndini; o,f cattle t r<-s i.-as-!< >•,;, and witudi i»ad been the Subject of fm qijeut <lis<vissiuti at 'he Police Odi.e. and in tbe public journals, ya' «<ie Amend'lent Ordinance tea* passed without Cottier-rmg such power, Would one not suppose ihal these O (1 tiiiines were caution*!* frained wpb toe deternii istion ot making them as defective as po>sp»ie, and <heielore as prufiialde to the I'U.ai protes«l>>u as it v\ as la the power of the frame to make dpnn. *• Cattle tound tiespasstti" rtpon laipl not teored, ' lias been Hie s ihjtc ot ihncfi incoHvenieiiee—caused much id feeling amongst the sett! is —ami op-m-d <ioor to grtal injustice ; —the most protituble bcciipailOH any tnOivplual couid now to!low would be tbe cultivation of uhieticed laud and then make Ins neighbours continually nay Mm for ihe trespassing of their cattle.

Ibe Pr petty Ilate O dinanee is a biitigliu<i piece of LejiisMiHon, is so wokiVi! as not to convey ibe meanioy; o( the Conn cil -and ns penal clause* in their pre'm nt sliape cannot legally be e."forced, as ibete is an amendment to tins O ditiance before the Couacil it will not oe necessary for me to do more than to ca I v»ui Lxceiien cy's attention to til*- tvici oj t s uiU-r Snellieieney to Us purpose. L liave Uie inoio lo remain \ oi.r Kreellency *9 . iVlos< Ooediem Servant, ii. Auckland 7di March 1845.

To the hditor of the Auckland Times. Sir, —I understand that it is the intention of His Excellency the Governor to v cr- sea the salary of Mr. HJonoeM, oy an annual addition of £lO ; it is really monstrous ii these times ot deep tltstre-s that any of tlie drones in the puohc service should be so eironeous y overpaid, tliere ate many competent persons m Auckand who would perioral ail the duties of Mr. Conueils olhce for per annum, and find any amount of security for its due performance. Surely then nothing can jus iiy any increase of salary to him, - indeed the estimates as read in Council on Thursday last, might be reduced at least one half without any in-

jury to the public service,—the obnoxious protectorate establishment is I regret still to be kept ; up, and no diminution of its unjustifiable expenses, —the salary of the p esent inefficient Police Msgistrate is too much, it might well be reduced to £l5O a year, thee are many competent persons in Auck'and who wou'd be rejoiced to hold the office on such terms.—While on this subject I should like to know how it is that the Harbour Master of Au kland receives a much larger sa ary than the gentleman holding a similar -ppmntment at Welling on, where there must necessarily be five times as much duty to be performed ? What do we want of a Harbour Master here at all ? it is quite true that Mr., Hough supports the dignity of the office s-ifeh all necessavy eclat, but it Should be borne in mind by the Legislative Councii that every shilling taken from the distressed settler* in the shape of taxes is so much capital or substance, there not being a single agriculturist in this district of New Zealand, that is not in much poorer means now than he was i 2,mom lis since, and that caused by his efforts <o make, the country something. The people of New Zea'and look forward with some «nxiety to the exeriidns which the independent members may makeo i the question ot die estimates, and although as the Council is now continued, i* is a mere farce to say the people have any voice whatever in maki g the Laws,—ye\ a strenuous opposi , tion does sometimes do good. I remain, sir, yours So., A SUBSCRIBER.