The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, JULY 11.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 311, 11 July 1879, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, JULY 11.

If there is one portion of our Statute Law which has more than another been the subject of amendment, re-cons traction, and every kind of " tinkering," it is that which relates to bankruptcy and insolvency. Scarcely a session passes without, an attempt being made to evolve an enactment which shall attain the double end of protecting the honest trader who haY been, compelled to suc,curnb to unavoidable misfortune, and of Jproiitiitlgjfcho'moans'; for/punishing-the unprincipled adventurer who seeks -merely to-free himself from his just liabilities >by a sh'oYt ) "and easy method, utterly regardless ■of any consideration of,justice or honor. Apparently this end is as far as ever from attainment. The man who, from no fault of his own, finds himself unable to meet his engagements, but -who has honestly '(sbmo would say foolishly) dene hla best to achieve that object by paying as far as his means would allow him, and consequently left himself penniless, meets with all but insuperable obstacles in availing himself of the law supposed to be designed for his relief. . Every step he takes he must be prepared to pay for. Practically he is compelled to employ a solicitor, and fees are demanded at every stage of the proceedings, from one who is supposed to have given up all he i possesses, and a considerable sum of money must be expended before he can obtain his discharge, and be in a position to commence life again free from the incubus of debt.

On the other hand, the ease with which the debtor untroubled with scruples can get himself whitewashed- and start afresh with the proceeds of what he really has plundered from his creditors is matter of common notoriety. The law is supposed to provide machinery by which , the fraudulent debtor may be brought under its lash, but that machinery is so are so many huge gates through , which any number of coaches and four may be driven, that the law becomes about as efficacious in entrapping the fraudulent bankrupt as the proverbial pinch .of salt is in ensnaring the guileless sparrow.

I Two cases which should have come before the Supreme Court at its late sitting in Christchurch are forcibly illustrative of the above remarks. We know nothing" of the facts'■which would have come out in evidence if they had' been tried, and therefore entirely, disci aim any prejudgment of the individual cases. But the fact remains that in neither case was the accused person called upon to justify his conduct bofpre a juiy, for the want of "prosecutions. it appears that ■prosecutions of this nature must be conducted at the expense' of private parties. His Honor Mr Justice Johnston remarked in relation to one of them—"l have seen cases in which the creditors and the trustees have been actually rabid in their desire to get a prosecution at the public expense, but that is just what the Legislature does not wish to have : done unless there is some special reason for the interference of the public prosecutor." Of course . the learned judge is right in his interpretation of the law, but ifc seems to us a. fair matter for argument whether the law does not 7cquireli : a3icalalterf)tiorj. On the face of it, we do not see why, .if tho whole machinery of the law, including • the Crown Prosecutor, is broughc into operation to punish the petty swindler who has cashed a valueless cheque, tho greater rogue who lias unlawfully possessed himself of the property of others in a wholesale manner; should escape scot free because there is no one able or willing to incur all the expense, annoyance, and risk entailed by a private prosecution.