The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3780, 27 August 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 1883.

We cannot help thinking that it is very much to be regretted that public attention is not more fully drawn by the Press to the proceeding's of the Legislative Council. It liiis long been customary to report the business of the Upper House as though it were of no public importance whatever. Half a, dozen lines arc made to .suffice for all that was done over night in the one House, while a column or two is hardly considered .sufficient to contain a fair account of how time has been Avastod in the other. This partial systom of reporting has been in vogue for some years, with the result that the impression lias been created that the work done in the Lower House is all important, while that in the Legislative Council is comparatively insignificant. A more erroneous impression could hardly be conceived a.s regards the actual legislation of our Houses of Parliament, nor is it one indeed that is entertained by the more thoughtful readers of Hansard. But the general public are satisfied with the reports placed before them by newspaper reporters, and these reports, being telegraphed to all parts of the colony, have necessarily to be very much condensed. It is not, as a rule, until the Wellington papers reach us that we obtain a fair idea of what takes place in the Legislative Council, and for a full report we have to wait for Hansard, which never comes to hand till a fortnight has elapsed since the date of the proceedings it reports. We attach no blame to the Press Agency nor to parliamentary correspondents for this one sided system, but we hold it to be the duty of newspapers to make up the deficiency when the opportunity arises. Those who do read the full reports of the proceedings of both Houses cannot but be struck with the vast difference in tone there is between the speeches delivered in the two Chambers. There is an entire absence of blatant nonsense in the one that is unfortunately such a feature in the other, and, while the Council can easily get through the work of the session by sitting for a few hours each day, the time of the Lower House is occupied to at least four times that period by members having an unwholesome desire to figure before the country as orators. There can bo no doubt about this, that, should it be ever seriously contemplated to abolish the Legislative Council, the country must be prepared to send a very different stamp of man to Parliament than that which now finds favor with too many constituencies. In the present state of the 1 colony our impression is that it could better afford to do away with half the House of Representatives than curtail the power of the Upper House. The above remarks are

suggested by an amendment proposed by the Hon. J. N. Wilson when the Bankruptcy Bill was on for its third reading. Mr Wilson's amendment was for the recommittal of the Bill for the insertion of some new clauses to the effect that insolvencies under £50 should be dealt with by a Resident Magistrate and his clerk, instead of by a Supreme Court Judge and a Registrar, the fees to be only £1 in all, viz., 10s for protection against execution, and 10s for discharge. A very interesting debate ensued, which, however, resulted in the loss of the amendment, and the third reading of the Bill. Commenting on Mr Wilson's proposal the Wellington Post said : —" Certainly it docs seem rather like using- a stenm-hammer to crush a walnut, when we find the Supreme Court appealed to in bankruptcy cases where the figures are, say—•" Liabilities, £29 10s lid; assets, is Cd; or "Liabilities, £20 Is Id; assets, «i 7." The plan which Mr Wilson suggests is that a debtor owing- £50 or less may apply to the nearest Resident Magistrate for protection against execution, which protection is to be granted on the debtor satisfying the Magistrate that ho has delivered up to the Clerk of the Court all his property, saving household goods, clothiiiff, tools, Sea., to the value of not more than £'20 ; the Magistrate then to call a meeting of creditors, and the Cleric to distribute equally the proceeds of the property. The insolvent then to bo discharged if he has .surrendered his property ini<l committed no offence ng-ainst the Act; no solicitor to appear ; the foes to bo 10s for protection and 10s for discharge." Referring the following day to the loss of tho amendment, our contemporary, to whom we are entirely indebted for our knowledge of what took place, stated:—"The objection seemed at once to suggest itself in everybody's mind that the proposed iicav clauses might afford very undesirable facilities for small debtors to shrink their liabilities and swindle their creditors. That is exactly what would probably be the result in many cases. On the other hand, it is supposed by tho author of the plan that the merits of each case would be duly sifted by the Resident Magistrate, and that a discharge (price 10s), or a sentence of imprisonment would follow, according as the insolvent came well or ill out of his examination. But another strong objection was raised to the proposal on the score of tho uiisuitablcncss of the new bankruptcy tribunal which would be erected. Mr Buckley condemned tho administration of justice in Resident Magistrates' Courts toto coilo in most forcible terms, and other members, while not going so far in this direction, nevertheless dissented from the proposal to relegate bankruptcy business to those Courts. It is true that some means might possibly have been found to overcome those objections or to remodel the scheme so as to attain tho end aimed at by the author, which wo take to be the very laudable ono of affording to small debtors, whoso difficulties were due to misfortune alone, facilities for 'whitewashing' as great as those possessed by defaulters on a larger scale, who have been able to save in advance enough out of the wreck to carry on tho war. 23ut whether there be or not any satisfactory way of effecting this, it is quite certain that there is not now time to deviso it in the present session."