The Bankruptcy Act.

Feilding Star, Volume V, Issue 48, 24 April 1884, Page 2

The Bankruptcy Act.

According to Judge Ward, the Bankruptcy Act not only meddle* with what we hold it should not meddle with, but, contrary to popnlar belief, actually offers a premium for fraud, and deals with bankrupts with a leniency which must sorely be unique. No ignominy new awaits the man who shuffles clear of his financial responsibilities. Nay, it even appears that our paternal Parliament has provided for the payment out of the publio .purse of the expenses necessary to enable enterprising citizens who have no funds and no estates at all, to escape from tho liability to say their debts. This is cheerful. We take it st least that Judge Ward understands the law of the matter, and, if he has been correctly reported, ho said in the District Court here recently in reference to a bankrupt estate ia which there were absolutely no assets, that the Government of the country should have ta pay ail the expenses connected with the proceedings— theexpenses of solicitors, the official assignees, and of advertising. If this ia true, it is strange indeed — a good deal stranger than any fiction we have lately come across ; and let us hope that the great men who represent the country in Parliament may duly sco to its rectification.— North Otago Times.