IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 650, 2 October 1874, Page 3

IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT.

—o— The recently passed Imprisonment for Debt Abolition Act, 1874, does not, as many people imagine, place the trader entirely at the mercy of the customer. Section G enacts that “ whenever, and so often as any sum of money due under any judgment or order in any Court shall remain unsatisfied it shall be lawful for the person entitled to recover such money, whether any distress warrant, or any other writ, or any other warrant shall, or shall not have been issued for the same, to obtain from time to time from the Registrar of any Court, a summons directed to the person

liable to pay such money, and such summons shall be served personally, or in the prescribed manner; and if such person shall appear in pursuance of such summons he may bo examined on'oath as to his es-' tate and effects, and as to the means ho has of paying, satisfying and discharging such sum of money ; also, as to the disposal he may have made of any property, as to his intention of leaving the Colony without paying such money as is still unsatisfied, or to depart elsewhere within the Colony with intent to evado payment; and as to the mode in which the liability the subject of such judgment or order was incurred ; and if the party so summoned do not attend, or allege a sufficient cause for not attending, or shall, if attending refuse to be sworn, or to disclose any thing mentioned in Section 6, or if he shall fail to make answer to the satisfaction of the Court touching the matters mentioned in Section 6, or if he shall appear to the Court by oral testimony, or by affidavit, or by both, that such party contracted the tie’t or liability which was the subject of such judgment or order by any fraud, or that such party has made, or caused to be made any gift, delivery or transfer of any property, 01 changed or removed or concealed the same with intent to defraud the person entitled to such money as aforesaid, or with any intent to defeat any execution issued upon such ju Igment or order, or that since the judgment or order the party has had moans and ability to pay the sum so recovered agan s him, and so due and unsatisfied as aforesaid, or any instalment when an order to pay by instalments has been made, or that he is about to leave the Colony or ti depart elsewhere within the Colony with intent to evade payment then, in any or cither of these cases it shall be lawful for such Court, if it shall think fit to order that unless such party shall pay into such Court either forthwith or by instalments as the Court may fix, or within the time limited in such order the money so unsatisfied with interest thereon at such rate as the Court shall direct, not exceeding 5 per cent., and the costs of any fruitless writs or warrants of execution, and of levies thereunder, together with the costs of and occasioned by such summons and examination, he shall be committed to prison for a period not exceeding three mouths.”

The imprisonment docs not operate as an extinguishment of the debt, nor deprive tbo creditor of the right to issue execution against the lands, goods, or chattels of the person imprisoned. Another provision, is that, in actions for L.'O or upwards, if it be shown to the satisfaction of the Court upon oath that there is a good cause of action and that defendant is about to quit New Zealand, and that his absence would materially prejudice the plaintiff, a Judge of the Court has power to order the arrest of the defendant, and his imprisonment for any term not exceeding six months, unless he has given or gives security iu the amount sued for, and he will not go out of New Zealand without the leave of the Supremo Court.

This is a very useful provision, as under the former Acts it was impossible to arrest the debtor unless it could be proved that he intended to leave the Colony, and many persons have been known to depart from one Province to another, feeling assured that to bring them back would entail more cost than the suitor in nine cases out of ten would feel inclined to pay. Persons in custody on the first day of October next, who shall not have been imprisoned under this Act of 1874, shall be discharged, but his or their arrest, im-prl-onmcnt, or discharge does not affect the creditors’ rights or remedies for enforcing payment of any money duo to him, nor does it deprive the creditor of the benefit of any charge or security on any property of the debtor.

It will therefore be seen that while this Act affords protection to the poor but honest man, it likewise provides for the punishment of the dishonest one, and denies relief to those who by questionable pretences obtain credit, and then seek to evade payment. Legislation has long been needed in this direction, and on the whole the mercantile community will find that its spirit and intention is to afford them more security and a less expensive procedure for the recovery of debts.