BANKRUPTEY REFORM.

Dunstan Times, Issue 889, 2 May 1879, Page 3

BANKRUPTEY REFORM.

( Graphic.) Theoretically, the framing of a workable Bankruptcy Act ahovld be an easy matter, but, it is not found to he so in practice, ami Government after Government have tailed in their endeavours to produce areally satisfactory measure. Let us hope that the present Ministry will he more fortunate; if they also fail, it will not be for an abundance of excellent if somewhat contradictory advice. Hut perhaps iu the matter of Bankruptcy Reform, the fault lies loss with Hie law givers than with the law users. Just as the horse, though an innocent animal, generates around him an atmosphere of roguery, so bankruptcy seems to generate around it an atmosphere of muddle and mismanagement. The objects of a Bankruptcy Act seem simple enough. When a trader announces that he cm no longer face his creditors, his assets ought to he distributed among them cheaply, expeditiously, and impartially, and he himself punished either by imprisonment or by suspension of his certificate if it is proved that ho has acted fradulently or recklessly. In practice it is found too often that the bulk of the assets are swallowed up by the proceedings, which last an unconscionable time; that some creditors arc favoured at the expense of others; and that men who really merit to bc|labelled as utterly unworthy of trust get “whitewashe l” over and over again. The true difficulty, it may he suspected, which lies at the root of all Bankruptcy Reform, and which the wisest legislation cannot entirely amend, consists in this, that the creditors rarely, if ever, pull harmoniously together; that some, and those the must deserving, regard a failure as one of the ordinary mishaps of trade, and refuse to give the time and trouble necessary for looking after their Inst money; while the remainder, instead of working in concert, are each engaged in selfishly trying to secure themselves. Such being the case, it is only natural that the “ wrecker," who waxes fat on the spoil of bankrupt estates, should become master of the situation. At the same time, it may he fairly urged that in France and Scotland, where different regulations prevail, the evils above indicated are not nearly so apparent as in this country', and therefore it may be hoped | that such a reform as the Government propose may induce those creditors who have

hitherto been apathetic, and inclined to regard the debt of an insolvent trader as something to be wiped off forgotten, to bestir themselves, in which case a fair and speedy distribution of assets would soon become the recognised practice.