Bankruptcy Figures

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20003, 31 July 1939, Page 16

Bankruptcy Figures

Sir, —In answer to “Curious,” 1 have taken 1935 and 1939, two fairly comparable years. In 1935 the mortgage relief legislation introduced by the National Government with its restrictions on making a debtor bankrupt resulted in a diminution in the number of bankruptcies, but the effect of a widening of the scope of that legislation by the Labour - Government and its actual operation should have been seen in a further lessening of bankruptcies in 1939. In both 1935 and 1939 prices for exports, while not particularly good, were not particularly bad. Moreover, October, 1935, was Mr. Savage’s starting off point. He led us 'to expect that he could do something better even than keep a dead level of prosperity; that we should go onwards and upwards. From what he said we thought that the graphs the Government Statistician used to draw that looked like diagrams of the Southern Alps would give place to a never-ending hill of prosperity with only one side to it. Mr. Savage has quoted bankruptcy figures to show prosperity under Labour rule,- but he has avoided 1939. When we compare 120 bankruptcies for the first six months of 1935 against 147 for the first six months of 1939 we see he is back below the point from which he started. The fact that “Curious” could easily show that the bankruptcy figures for the first six months of 1937 or 1938 are ever so much lower than those for 1939 would only be further proof of sad retrogression. CITIZEN.