The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1885. Bankruptcy

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 31, 22 August 1885, Page 2

The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1885. Bankruptcy

That feeling of mistaken leniency towards bankrupts of every social position in life, who have failed from causes other than losses in business or by direct misfortune, is rapidly dying out. Recent cases which have occurred near at hand have taught creditors that from careless good nature, or supine indifference, they have done themselves and those connected with them a serious injury. The facility with which a dishonest man could escape the consequences of his idleness or extravagance by flying to the refuge afforded in the Bankruptcy Court, was not given by the Bankruptcy Act but by the creditors, who seldom or never take Much trouble after a declaration of insolvency has been filed, satisfied as they are generally that hopes of a dividend are groundless in most cases. By neglecting to oppose in all cases, or to winnow and sift every bankrupt's affairs until the whole of them are made clear and intelligible, they have educated and encouraged a certain class of unscrupulous men as to a mode whereby they can be pleasantly and securely dishonest. We have had with us instances where laboring men, in full work from year's end to year's end, have filed and ''got through. " without paying- a farthing of dividend. Outsiders have laughed, while the sufferers have borne their losses with philosophy — which was a mistake— and " all has gone merry as a marriage bell'! in the house of the successful bankrupt. " But creditors are beginning to change their views on this subject, and the spirit of mercy has nearly burned itself out. It is being replaced by a feeling of anger, with a desire to know the reason why business folk should be called upon to bear undeserved' losses. In the past the. stringency of some of the clauses in the Bankruptcy Act has prevented many criminal prosecutions, from the fear that innocent wives and Children would suffer for the guilty. This sentimentalism has been found to be a; mistake, inasmuch, as lazy or unprincipled husbands . and fathers have traded upon, it, while wives and

grown-up families have flaunted in finery and luxury they knew would never be paid for — honestly — or which their social positions neither demanded nor allowed, whether paid for or not. They appear to have looked on the Bankruptcy Court as a certain and easy way of paying their debts without the necessity of even pretending to have been unfortunate. Creditors appeared to be of the same opinion. We are glad to observe evidences of a change. In the cases of a laborer, and of two so-called tradesmen who have recently been examined, examples are likely to be made which may have a deterrent effect on those geniuses who have hitherto enjoyed immunity from punishment for the most bare-faced fraud, or who are now making the necessary preparations to " judiciously file "—^verbum sap. We sincerely hope that the meshes of the law " will so compass the wrong-doers about " that escape will be rendered i impossible and justice will be vindi- ] oated.