THE BANKRUPTCY ACT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8359, 16 February 1907, Page 5

THE BANKRUPTCY ACT.

| SUGGESTED AMENDMENTS. ! At the meeting of the Masterton Chamber of Commerce, yesterday, the following letter was received from the Secretary of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce dealing with proposed amendments to the Bankruptcy Act of 1892:—At a recent meeting of this Chamber the following resolutions relative to the above were passed, viz.:—(l) "That this Chamber urges upon the Government the necessity of amending the Bankruptcy Act, which does not now properly mee v t the requirements of the general public and the commercial community, and suggests that the Department should appoint some one to i re-model the Act who may obtain from the various Chambers of Commerce their grounds of complaint as to administration and the operations of the Act and their suggestions for improvement." (2.) "That this resolution be forwarded to ' all Chambers of Commerce in New Zealand, they to be asked to confirm same and forward to the Minister." In explanation of the above, I am directed to -say that considerable discontent exists in com mercial circles here with regard to the operation of the 1892 Act, and it is with a view to getting this state of things remedied that this Chamber has been asked to move. The necessity of having to go to a Judge of the Supreme Court on most bankruptcy business, and the fact that these Judges are more often away on circuit or on Appeal Court I business than not, and that, when they are available, that pressure of other work forces bankruptcy business to the bottom of the list to be pushed through at the last moment — all this suggests the advisability of one or more Judges being appointed whose special business shall be bankruptcy work, and who, when not sitting in open Court, could devote their time in supervising and advising the assignees, thereby saving a large portion of the assets of estates now frequently eaten up by obtaining legal opinions and by entering on hopeless actions. They might also assist the Stipendiary Magistrates). The following few suggestions, inter alia, for the amendment of the main portion of the Act will no doubt commend themselves to the members of your Chamber: —Section 29, Acts of Bankruptcy,requires strengthening by addition of a further sub-section reading, say: "If he sells his business and stock or the principal part thereof and allows one or more parto receive payment for a past debt in full without having given notice of such intention to all other creditors." Sub-section 8 might be improved by constituting the mere calling of "a creditors' meeting for the purpose of considering the debtor's position an available act of bankruptcy. Section 77 antecedent transaction: It is proposed to amend this section as follows: "Every disposal of the whole or majtjr portion of a trader's business and stock-in-trade shall, if the debtor be adjudicated a bankrupt under this Act, within three months of the date of such disposal or sale be void as against the Assignee unless it be proved that the fact of such disposal or sale has been advertised in one of the principal newspapers of the district at least once a week for four weeks and that the proceeds have been placed for one month into a trust account." With regard to Section 137 subjection 4,penal clauses, it seems necessary, in view of failure to secure conviction under this subsection, that at least one or two of the books of account required to be kept should be enumerated, also a new sub-section, making failure to. treat proceeds of sale of business as above a penal offence. A matter of the highest importance to creditors is that a means to stop assets being frittered away in lawyers' fees and other legal expenses should be devised. The bankrupt's solicitor, according to the present scale, receives a fee up to £lO through the mere incident that the assets happen to realise £2OO or over. If they realised £25 the fee would be £2 2s, which is generally considered a fair remuneration for the work done. This alone shows the necessity for the scale of fees being revised. After some discussion, a committee, consisting of Messrs Cruickshank, Summerell, Chennells, Dolan, Mason, Robinson, and Caselberg was appointed to confer with other Chambers of Commerce in reference to the proposed amendments.