The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1889. The Bankruptcy Act.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3195, 3 May 1889, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1889. The Bankruptcy Act.

Foe some reason "that does not,, perhaps, need muoli explanation, the bankruptcy laws of the Colony have received a good deal of attention of late froni the ptess in New Zealand, and we ourselves -have done a little towards setting the ball rolling. There is no doubt that the Bankruptcy. Act does want amending; but wo are not quite prepared to go to the length which has been suggested by some of our contemporaries, the majority of whom are in- favor of making it more stringent, The Act probably affords means to clever scoundrels'to drive through it; but that is not sufficient to warrant us to assume thai it is more faulty in that one respect than many another Act that we could name. While the laws of the Colony put certain matters directly into the hands of those who are most interested in them, .those who are irost interested are certain to do grotesque things once in a while, even, if it is only to illustrate the old platitude that the exception proves the rule. In the last number of the Mercantile and Bankruptcy Gazette to hand, an article appears from which we make the following extract It haß teen admitted (or a long time past that the section which necessitates a bankrupt asking the Court tor an order fixing the day on whioh he may make application for his dischavgo is about as useless a piece of legislation a; baa ever been enacted; it is aljWs a foiinal motion, and never, so _ far as wo know, Jmi'jf ever been refused; if # bankrupt's conduct and dealings have been satisfactory all poisons consent to' his application—not for discharge, bo it remembered, but to his request that ho may have an opportunity afforded bill] "of applying for it; if on the. other hand he has been. guilty of dishonesty or of offences whioh' would bring him within tho jienal clauaes ol tjjp Bankvupt-y Act, the creditors are just as willipg that he should come up for his disohargo, at thai is'tk time tlmjmmj king before the notice «fth Cptirt any matters in mpKlpfKhichtheythkkthebanbiifitslmld bt pvmhed'. As,'- therefore, the section in juration issueless for any purpose, T th"e S.oo/jef jt is repealed'the belter, Np\v, wptlo )]9t suppoie that the

Bankruptcy Gazette would )ij;g to see. any bankrupt pass along into the quiet by and by without going into Court for his discharge,-for he may, under the present laws of the country, have made any amount of property over to hij wife, and thus have placed himself in a position to laugh at the very idea of requiring a discharge, because he is entirely independent of it so long as he retauiß his marital partner's affections,: the Bankruptcy Gazette, ; which is ,a preditors' organ pure tittd simple, like to give a jdejbtor the' chance of-getting out of liis difficulties in such an easy manner? We are inclined to'think that it has no such object in view. There is the other subject mentioned whioh we' have put in jfgjics, whioh seems to us'to defeat tlie object our contemporary had in view, for we cannot imagine it likaly that creditors who take thfl least interest in the'estate would readily fofegp the privilege of a publio examination of a' debtor; and how. could they' .conveniently bring before the Court" any matte in respect of which they think the bankrupt should be punished " unless the Court fixed. a time at which the matter should be -investigated ? _lt no doubt, be very npil'to n --«ndinei)t unte which no pass an aaiu , : : L *iavment in creditor could-' accepi L ..• •v« full-in preference to ; the remainuiu of the creditors; but would there ever be anybody, to proveMhat- such a fraud had been committed ? There is not a creditor liyingfiyho, if Jones

became bankrupt, and owed bira a hundred 'pounds, ' would" not aoofept, that' Bum froni:fßobinson in prefer: enco to: whatever-dividend the estate might. pay; and 110 amount oflegisilation- -wouldfmako : Jones more honest in that-respeot. - The" Gazette has a gratuitous fling at creditors in general by stating, that'nine out of ten have generally been through the mill. If this.be so,, the section bfthe community- who 'form its-bank-rupts and their creditors must be very small, and the general public

should be in a position to' congratulate inself that its commercial morals are many degrees; hotter than they have hitherto been supposed to be.