BANKRUPTCY PROCEDURE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 482, 15 April 1909, Page 4

BANKRUPTCY PROCEDURE.

The report on bankruptcy procedure which was submitted by a special committee to the conference of Chambers of Commerce yesterday dealt with its subject in two divisions, the Act and its administration. We believe that while there are defects in the Bankruptcy Act which should be promptly remedied, the principal evils of which commercial men can justly complain are duo to the unsuitable character of some, of its administrators. "The.above'and other defects," state the committee, "are inseparable from a system that is administered by ■officers who have not had a commercial training, or who 'aro not possessed of the required business knowledge and capacity." This is the crux of the whole trouble, and the existence, of-such in-adequately-qualified officers to perform the difficult duties of administration is due to another system—in connection with appointments to the Civil Service— which has been often enough condemned. No one would argue for a moment that all the Official Assignees of the Dominion have been unsuitable for their duties, but it is not necessary to go far for an example of the friction and unpleasantness, to say the least of it, that an officer of this kind can produce. The committee of the conference suggested, and the .conference endorsed the recommendation, that the Government should be asked to take steps, either to improve the administration of the law as it .now exists, or preferably to alter the scheme of administration completely. Instead of being dealt with by an Official Assignee, whose knowledge may be purely clerical, it is suggested that an estate in bankruptcy should be administered by a trade assignee, to be appointed by the meeting of creditors. The trade assignee would be chosen from a list of commercial men, approved and registered by a central authority for the performance of such functions. The advantage of this system would be that the creditors would be able to select their administrator from among, perhaps, half a dozen competent men, instead of having to trust the realisation of- the estate to one particular official, possibly with more knowledge of the desk than business. A system of this kind should work well provided that the greatest care were taken in the appointment of the central authority. The central control would ensure more uniformtiy in dealing with estates than is provided by the present system, under which each Official Assignee is, within certain limits, a law unto himself, and estates would be realised to better purpose, by proper commercial agents, than they are in many cases by some of the present Official Assignees. It is worth considering if the office of tho Public Trustee could not be utilised, in connection with the central administration of the system. The new Minister for Justice (the Hon. Dr. Findlay) has shown some inclination to consider this question of bankruptcy procedure, and it is to bo hoped that legislation will be brought before the House next session which will satisfy the business community.