GAOL FOR DEBT

Hokitika Guardian, 13 February 1933, Page 7

GAOL FOR DEBT

ENGLAND’S. ANNUAL “ARMY.”

LONDON, February S

“Over 24,000 people are yearly sent to gaol in England for. the non-pay-ment of sums which a large proportion of them a re quite unable to pay,’ says the “Manchester Guardian.’ “It is an injustice of which the Scots law is free, which the Frene l ' and, German codes have long abandoned, and which South Africa last year expunged from its legal system. The debts incurred are usually for clothing, furniture, food or other essentials. •

“Tiie rich man who runs up similar bills and does not pay them evades gaol by going bankrupt. The poo; man who cannot obey the order of i Court to pay is imprisoned until lie or his friends and relations can. In the upshot- the system is unjust, ineffectual, and expensive. It is unjust because it perpetuates one law foi the rich and another for the poor. It is ineffectual because imprisonment cannot extract means from the man who has none. “It is expensive because the State spends more money in endeavouring tc collect the debts and by gaoling the debtors than it gets back by the process. The vendor should satisfy himself that the purchaser has more, than his person to offer by way of credit before he encourages a sale —in other words, credit ought to rest upon property or .character,- and where it is given without proof of either the poor should fare no worse at the han*s -of the'law than do the rich.”