BANKRUPTCY STATISTICS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1633, 13 March 1884, Page 2

BANKRUPTCY STATISTICS.

(Oarnaru Times.) I Few, we suppose,, realise that from the beginning of 1877 until the end of 1883 no fewer tLan 1)243 declarations of insolvency were filed in New Zealand,' Yet such is the case, unless official statistics are proved to lie untrustworthy. The mere number of insolvencies, however, though instructive to a certain extent, does not disclose the effect whicli bankruptcy must have upon the solvent people of the colony, To realise this wo must con-; sider the difference between 1 tho liabilities of the bankrupts and their realised assets. This we are enabled to do by a study of the statistics of the subject. Those who adopt thismethod of-calculation will be justified in assuming that for the septennial period we have mentioned—that is, from the beginning of 1877 until the end of 1883—the solvent people of the colony have, through those who in that time have become insolvent, sustained a dead loss of £1,500,000 sterling. The only yen - of the seven for whicli we • have not monetary returns under tho head of bankruptcy is lust year; but the demonstrated facts available justify hs in placing the total loss at a million and a lialf sterling. We at least know that during the first six years of tho period under notico the solvent people of the colony lost, through the differ-

ence between the liabilities and the realised assets of the insolvents, precisely i1,270;71G. Besides this, we also know that bankruptcies in the colony last year numbered 1461, and that in none of the six preceding years did they exceed, or even equal that number, except in 1879, when they numbered 1587. Everything considered, then, we are fully justified in assuming that the solvent people of the colony have, through insolvents, within the last seven years, sustained a dead loss amounting to £1,500,000. What do these facts suggest to our readers 1 It can hardly be necessary to state what they prove. They simply prove, with the utmost clearness, that through the operation of the bankruptcy laws the solvent people of the colony have, during the past seven years, sustained an irreyoc ablo loss amounting to a million and ahalfin pounds sterling, and that those who have caused that loss, have by ijthe same laws been absolved from all future liability in connection with it. Surely if these facts suggest anything to our readers, it is that it would be better for the people if there were no' bankruptcy law at all in the country.