The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1883. BANKRUPTCY REFORM.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 86, 3 April 1883, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1883. BANKRUPTCY REFO RM.

-^ .- At the annua! meeting- of :he Wellington Chamber of Commerce, held on Thursday last, the reiiort of tbe sub-committee on the new j Bankrnptcy Bill was adopted. It points out where the suggestions ol | conference of dcleirares of Chamberof Commerce held on the subject in June last have been adopted or rejected. The suggestion th.it four bankruptcy districts be created was not adopted. The Bill provides for the appointment of judges in bankruptcy from among the judges of the Mipreme Court. The report says that the detects in t he present system are defects of administration, and urges that only the appointment of judges for bankruptcy business alone can amend them. Ihe suggestion that no bankrupt should receive his discharge until he had paid 10s in the C was not adopted by the Government. This is to be regretted, as the object was that it might come to be understood to be the duty of traders to put their affairs in the hands of their creditors so soon as they found their assets to be less than 20* in the £. Where fraudulent bankruptcy existed it was proposed that as juries seldom convicted, that the mere fact of the bankrupt having committed the acts specified should be enough to render him liable to punishment at the discretion of the judge. '1 lie suggestion that prosecutions should be conducted by the Crown Prosecutor was adopted. Also that an examination in open Court be made compulsory before a debtor gets ,-jis discharge, and that an assignee or creditor may oppose without notice. The suggestion that no debtor be allowed to file who had not £2o of assets was not a iopted. This also is to regretted, as the present condition leads to great fraud?, as there are persons who file periodically, and put down their assets as £25 or less in excepted articles. The suggestion that any uncertificated bankrupt obtaining gjods on credit without stating the fact to the vendor, or paying for the said goods, be a misdemeanour was not adopted. The committee consider that the present powers to arrest absconding debtors by telegram are insufficient, and that further representation should be made to the Government. Ihe provision thai a debtor b; lie.d to bo discharged after three years was adopted. The suggestion that a debtor, whose estate had not paid 10s in the £, should be uuable to hold any official position, unless he could prov^ that his bankruptcy was beyond his control, was not adopted. This is to be regretted, as it was the desire of the committee to make bankruptcy disgraceful. The suggestion that the bankruptcy should be made to relate back to the first act of bankruptcy within a year was adopted. Also, that the Judges have power in the case of auy debtor in receipt of a certain income, to set aside tart of future income for the payment of a dividend. The law relating to bills of sales was still unsatisfactory and easily evaded, and the Government should be urged to pass provisions similar to those of the Victorian Act : and that to make a bill of sale effective, it should be necessary that the notice of intention should be advertised in the local gazette for fourteen days, to give creditors an opportunity of lodging a caveat. The papers of a bankrupt are now open for inspection of any person on payment of a small fee. It is proposed that proxies should be signed before a J. P. Also, that the secretary or manager of any company or society or corporation in which the debtor held shares, should, without demand, inform the assignee of the facts, and should hold all shares, money or securities to the order of the assignee only. A clause should be added, that in certain cases where it is necessary in the interest of the estate, an insurance may be effected on the life of the debtor. On the whole the committee consider that a strou g effort has been made by the bill to meet the wishes of the mercantile community,

ami they anticipate it will havo a j beneficial effect if it becomes law. It will probably pa<s at the next | sitting of Parliament. On tne whole this Hill will be very advantageous to storekeepers and traders in the cottntrv towns and districts, and wi 1 enable them to protec. themselves ] ag-ainst dishonest and unsc-rupubms ( persons, who, havng- left other places ! hopelessly in debt, come and settle where their antecedents are unknown, and who begin " in fresh fields and pastures new" to prey on the unwary or confiding storekeeper or trale m mi.