The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JULY 6, 1880.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 160, 6 July 1880, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JULY 6, 1880.

I ■ Committees of the two Houses of the Legislature having been appointed to consider audi report upon the desirability of amending the; bankruptcy laws, a series of questions were prepared by them and forwarded to the various Chambers of Commerce, the Judges, and others, with a request that they would reply, and so assist tbe Committees by their advice. In the latest number of the New Zealand Times to hand there is a report of the meeting of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce called to Consider these questions, and the resolutions at which they arrived. As these may be of interest to those of our readers engaged in trade, we give the substance of them :— (1.) A debtor should be made bankrupt on the application of either the debtor or creditors, as at present, hut without the necessity of personal service on the debtor in proceedings by a creditor. (2.) The bankrupt estate Bhould be administered hy an official assignee or administrator, who should be an officer of the Court, in whom all estates should rest ; the creditors to have power to appoint a trustee or trustees to act in conjunction with such assignee ; the control of the debtor over any portion of the estate to cease absolutely immediately on filing. (3.) The circumstances which shoud disentitle a bankrupt to his discharge should bo any of the following : — That, being a trader, he has neglected to keep proper books of account ; reckless or fraudulent disposal of property ;' destroying or falsifying books of account ; non-payment of a dividend of 7s in the pound. (4 ) The law. relating to bills of sale should be altered as follows :— That no bill of sale should take effect until registered. That every bill of sale given by a trader on his stock in trade Bhould be absolutely void as against the claim of auy creditor whose debt was existing at the date of the bill of sale. (5.) The right of distress for rent should not he modified. (6.) A bankrupt should be prosecuted by the. Crown Prosecutor/ upon the information after tbe administration of the estate, at the public expense, the same as any other criminal prosecution. (7.) The same claims should be treated as preferential as -.in the present Debtors and Creditors' Act; and. it is further suggested that the same provision should apply to insolvent estates , of deceased persons. (8.) The present mode of arrangement hy deed should not be continued. {(9.) No debtor should be discharged except after examination in open Court, but such examination should not necessarily entitle him to his discharge. The ' assignee or any creditor should be entitled, either in person or by hia solicitor, to oppose tbe application for discharge without notice. — The members of the Chamber also expressed a very favorable opinion of the provisions of the South Australian Insolvent Act of 1860, aad further stated their opinion that all proceedings in bankruptcy should be j carried on in a special Court presided over by a Judge of the Supreme Court, or some legal functionary whose status should be equal to that of a Judge.