The Fielding Star. Published Daily. SATURDAY, DEC. 16, 1893. THE BANKRUPTCY ACT.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 193, 16 December 1893, Page 2

The Fielding Star. Published Daily. SATURDAY, DEC. 16, 1893. THE BANKRUPTCY ACT.

Tiiebe has been a considerable amount of attention directed lately to the Bankruptcy Act, and it ie highly probable that an attempt will be made sometime in the second session of the coming Parliament to have the Act anended. The impression which now largely • obtains is that the law as it stands is for the protection of debtors and not for the protection of creditors as well. We are perfectly aware that the latter was, and is, the intention of the Act, but it only goes half way, aud the creditors are too often left out in the cold, severely. Of course, in nine cases out of ten, the creditors have only themselves to blame, but there is still some excuse for them. As a rule, when at a meeting of creditors a resolution is passed to the effect that the debtor " shall be sent up for public examination," the creditors appear to think that they have done all that is necessary on their part, as they have put the affair into the hands of the law officers of the Crown, who will do all the rest. This is a snare and a delusion as most of the business people are beginning to know. So little faith have many creditors now in the proceedings in bankruptcy as a means to save a little from the wreck, that they will not even take the trouble to prove their claims, let alone assist to investigate into the estates of debtors even when they know there has been private extravagance of a most reprehensible diameter. None of them caro to " bell the cat." They prefer to leave that for the officers of the Bankruptcy Court to do, and as the latter are strictly limited as to what they shall or shall not do under the Act, the debtor generally escapes. We are told by the Wairarapa Daily Times that the new procedure under Judge Kettle redeems the measure from the contempt with which it has hitherto been regarded, but concludes its article as follows : — " In our remarks we have referred to the general tone taken by Judge Kettle in bankruptcy cases, and not to any specific example. Indeed, in once instance that came before the Court on Wednesday a consideration which somewhat astonished the public, was shown to a debtor by His Honor. The lenity in this partictlar instance may have arisen from an error of judgment on the part of the Court, or a mistaken idea on the part of the public. Were our remarks founded on this particular case they would certainly have been of a somewhat different character." A contradiction in terms and in fact.