The Wairarapa Daily THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 1891.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3897, 27 August 1891, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 1891.

" Where's Geoedie ?" " Gone to gaol for stealing a cow!" " The fool, why did he not buy the cow and then not pay for it 1" Some years ago a col • loquy of this kind was published in the pages of flinch, and the moral of it is especially applicable to some of the individuals who figure in oar Insolvency Courts. These gentry are not fools, they never steal a cow, but they are wonderful adepts in the art Of buying a cow without paying for it, or purchasing any number of cows without paying for them, or even they are equal to appropriating somebody elses money to buy the cow, and then don't pay for it. Every now and again we get a revelation in our bankruptcy cases of the most unblushing aid astounding chicanery, and what is the outcome of the exposure ? Simply that others in the same line of business, viz., earning a questionable livelihood by their wits, are posted up in the newest tricks by which they can delude their fellow men. No punishment, they observe, follows upon the most bare-faced frauds, and even when, as sometimes happens, lawyers themselves are victims and are found in the creditors' schedule, do they attempt to vindicate, the majesty of the law, do they give the dishonest bankrupt his due ? No ! they say there is no money in the estate to pay for a prosecution, and the offender is allowed to go scathes less, We shall come to such a pass by and by that when a bankrupt has displayed exceptional cleverness in defrauding his creditors he will become the recipient of a public testimon'al, and a subscription list will be opened for his benefit. It is very evident that our Bankruptcy Act is absolutely worthless as a protection for the public interests. If it were the duty of a District Judge or an Official Assignee to order a prosecution at the public expense in any case where pa'pable and systematic fraud might be revealed, we should speedily we a marked improvement in the commercial morality of the trading public, and even in the ways of those people, who, without being traders, manage to live like leeches oi their fellow men and then make a reireat through the bankruptcy court, The man who steals a cow or a horse and who goes to gaol for the off?nee is not nearly as dangerous to society as the men who, by deceit and trickery, defraud their ) fellow men out of hundreds and thousands of pounds, and yet for the former there is a heavy and stern punishment, while the latter parade themselves as objects of public sympathy and defy any form of legal retribution.