BANKRUPT ESTATES

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2208, 22 July 1914, Page 8

BANKRUPT ESTATES

' AND PRIVATE ASSIGNMENTS. (By T«leerauh— Erese Association.) Auckland, July 21. A statement whioh will prove of com siderable interest to the business corn* munity was made by Mr. W. S. Fisher, Official Assignee in Auckland, 'at tlie conclusion of a meeting of creditors, which was attended by a number or prominent business men. Mr. Fisher referred to the satisfactory result of the administration of an estate by his office. "For this I don't claim any special merit, for my office," said Mr. I'isher. "The estate was a clean one, and easily worked, but I can. at least claim that the assets have not been frittered away or wasted, and the administration goes to show that, provided my office lias material to work upon, it can do quite as well as private. trustees. Now as you know, for some'.' years past thero". has been a steady' movement towal-ds placing cleaner and more remunerative estates in the lands of private trustees. To such an extent has this been tlio case that in other centres the work of administration of bankrupt estates has been carried on at a loss, while in Auckland it 'has little 1 more than paid its way. In consequence tho Government, for the . sake; of economy, proposes to hand over tho work to another Department. This has already been done in two other centres— Christcliurch and Dunedin—where Deputy Public Trustees now act as Official Assignees, and it is proposed to do the same in Auckland. - It,"" he added, "this. cliango is brought about, 1. tlunk it will result in a wholesale movement towards the private assignments business. Men will recognise that'their interests cannot be properly looked after by an official wlio is already fully loaded with his own work, and they will take caro that , estates in which they are interested shall not go to. him. This will mean that in future there will be no investigations and inquiries such as are now conducted in bankruptcy, and no prosecutions. Debtors will soon xealise that they will bo able to -commit all sorts of frauit, and nothing will be siid to them. In fact, one lover will have gone which helped' to keep the commercial atmosphere pure. ■ If you think there ds anything in my contention I would point out that the remedy is in your own hands.' Usually it lies with ' you to say where an insolvent ©state shall go. You will have to choose whether you will support the machinery provided Government for doing this class of work or whether you will be driven to wholesale resort to private assignments."-