POOR MAN PAYS, IN GAOL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 685, 10 June 1929, Page 13

POOR MAN PAYS, IN GAOL

IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT IS RELIC OF SLAVERY EX-JUDGE’S REVELATIONS “Imprisonment for debt,” said Sir Edward Parry, a former English County judge, in an address to the Howard League in London, “is a relic of slavery. “The reason why the rich do not go to prison is that a man with £lO in his pocket at the Bankruptcy Court may j run into debt to the extent of £IO,OOO. ! That is the reason why rich bankers who go bankrupt recur like decimals. “The thing is, at the base of it, immoral , wicked and scandalous. Whether you steal twopence or two thousand pounds, the shame is the same. “The number of people in prison for debt these days is not very high. The reason is not hard to see. I think that a great sense of shame has grown up among our officials by the existence of this scandal. 1 don’t believe you could go before a county court judge today and get an order against a man merely because you proved that he had had means to pay the debt since the judgment had been made. You would not be listened to. “Debtors decreased during the war, but now they are increasing because times are rather bad. Some people will tell you that the figures are lower than before the war. I don’t think that is a fair argument. “What are the difficulties of stopping this scandal? One of the most important is that the Treasury want to see the county court a paying concern and this is a cheap way of raking in money. This brings a great amount of big business in bulk.”'