WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 June 1929, Page 2

WELLINGTON NEWS

'BANKRUPTCIES. *• (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON. June 18. When presiding over the Bankruptcy Court at Napier His Honour the Chief Justice (Hon. M. Myers) was constrained to remark: “There seems to be a good deal of bankrutpey here,” when a considerable number of applications for discharge from bankruptcy had been dealt with. 'The Official Assignee replied that the returns for Napier were not much behind those of Wellington. “I hope things will soon be better,” observed His Honour, to which the Assignee replied that the number of bankruptcies had lately been less than usual. There is no evidence that bankruptcies throughout the Dominion are showing a decreasing tendency, and this is borne out by the official figures published in the Monthly Abstract. In April last,, which are the latest figures, there were 45 insolvencies in the Dominion as compared with 64 in the corresponding month of last year, a decrease of 19. .

Of the total in April 32 bankruptcies occurred in the North Island and 13 in the South Island, the figures last year being respectfully 57 and 1 .17, that is there were 15 fewer bankruptcies in the North Island and 4 in the South Island than in April of last year. The figures for the four months ended with April exhibit the same tendency. The total for the period was 220 as compared with 249 in the corresponding four months of 1928, a decrease of 29. Of the total 159 bankruptcies were registered in the North Island us against 182. a decrease of 23, nnd 61 in the South Island as compared with 67, a decrease of 6. The deeds of assignment also show a decline, Ike total (or the four months being 65 as against CDuring the whole of last year 800 bankruptcies were regucerel as against 868 in 1927, a decrease of 62, and both Islands exhibit shrinkages It;will thus be seen that Lbe tendency generally is for . a cjsorcase in business mortality. kentia PALM INDUSTRY. ' The scene of a' remarkable romance in industry is laid in Lord Howe Island; politically a part of New South Wales, fjhe islands appears to bo an eaptjily industrial paradise, according to Mr G. P. Darnell-Smith, a Director of Sydney Botanic Gardens, who has contributed an interesting article to the Bulletin of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, England. The whole of the island, about 3220 acres, is Crown , land, and the inhabitants number jß>out 120. No need exists for fair rent courts, because no rent is payable, or for industrial arbitration courts to regulate the hours of labour and the amount of wages to overtake the cost of living, for by doing about one month’s work in the year, the happy inhabitants are able during the remaining eleven months to indulge in the relaxation of providing vegetables, and poultry for domestic use and enjoy the perfect climatic conditions of the island where frosts are unknown and the thermometer rarely rises above 80 deg. There are no taxation problems to .meet the ideals of class legislation, the main worry of the islanders being how appropriately to use so much leisure. The .Island, according to Dr Darnell-Smith, is the home of the Ker.tia Palm, and the natives have a world monopoly of the seeds of this plant. In 1913 the seed industry was placed under a board of control in Sydney, and this board markets the crop each year and holds the proceeds in trust for the islanders.

The seeds are regarded as island property, and the vexing problem of distribution is solved by giving each of the inhabitants a number of shares and thus the annual income of each one is determined. . Children, under 16, regardless of sex, are allotted 15 shares; between 16 and 21 each person obtains another 10 shares and at 30 another 25. No family, however, can hold more than shares. Payments are . made monthly and amount to about £2 per share per annum, so that the minimum income is £SO, whilst a family holding the maximum .number of shares obtains £320. As Dr Darnell-Smith observes: “This peculiar and unique island industry affords a-very interesting and successful practical experiment in state socialisation which probably would not be possible in any other part of the world, since the conditions that prevail in the island arc so unusual.”