The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1869. Notes on Bankruptcy

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 51, 17 October 1889, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1869. Notes on Bankruptcy

From time to time when politics are dull and the news from Europe and the other parts of the world are unexciting, the subjoct of our bankruptcy laws, and the mode in which they are carried oof,u f , is taken up by newspaper writers for want of something better. When prices are low aud business dull, then in their turu the Chambers of Commerce in the the various " centres" of the colony take it up, and after the usual wrangling aud display of sympathetic or projudiced ignorance, some resolutions, toned by the peculiar circumstances of the several members, are drawn up, adopted and forwarded, to the Ministers of the day- who put them in a pigeon hole and forget all ' about them — very properly. We have been induced to add our little stone to the heap by noticing a paragraph which has been circulated a good deal lately in our exchanges, by which a suggestion is made that all bankruptcy business should be done by •' commercial men," whatever that phrase may be intended to convey to the more or less intelligent reader. Whether the suggestion i's intended -to be taken seriously or with levity, we are not prepared to give au opinion ;. -but either .^»y ;we disagree with jtjt;

We think that if we may for the nonce put creditors down as " commercial men" they have had a great deal too much to do with bankruptcy business already, and the time has now arrived when an entirely new line might with advantage be struck out, and the farces called " meetings of creditors" no longer enacted. We would substitute a fresh system for the old and rot' en one, which now drags out a miserable existence, profitable, we admit to the (iovernment, but at the expense of the honest trader. Of course we do not propose to formulate details, but the ground work of our idea is this : — Repeal the present Bankruptcy Act altogether, pass a uew Act appointing one or more Judges in Bankruptcy giving them absolute power, at the eatae time defining what would be acts of bankruptcy on the part of a debtor ; let the judges have power to employ a staff of competent accountaats and valuers, whose office it would be to make thorough examination into the whole of the books. &c, of an estate, and report thereon ; also, make it a penal offence on the part of a bankrupt who. had not kept certain books of account, to be enumerated in the Act. Let it be enacted that the instant a trader, or other person, comes under the provisions of the Act, he stands as a person accused of an offence of which the onus of proving his innocence will lie with himself — and his solicitor The expense entailed on e>tates brought under the operation of this mode would not be half what it amounts to now and failures, whether from reckless trading or from actual dishonesty would be reduced to a minimum. We purposely abstain from commenting on the abuses which hay« now become recognised, and almost pardonable, act* of scoundrelisra perpetrated by unscrupulous persons under the law in this connection as it now stands.

The report so industriously spread over the colony by th« Press Association to the effect that the Napier money market was flooded with forged notes of the Bank of New Zealand, turns out to be '• a flam" pure and simple. There was one forged note — it appears — in the possession of a Hawke's Bay man, who showed it to a friend as a curiosity picked up in Christchurch some time ago. That was all. People who circulate these sort of stories should remember that they are guilty of an act which may inflict serious injury on any moneta'-y iusthu'ion which issues notes payable on demand.