THE NEW BANKRUPTCY ACT ANALYSED.

Westport Times, Volume 1, Issue 141, 13 January 1868, Page 3

THE NEW BANKRUPTCY ACT ANALYSED.

(prom the southland news.) (Concluded from our last.) In our previous remarks on the new Bankruptcy Act we arrived at that stage of the proceedings authorising the appointment of creditors as supervisor of the "bankrupt's estate. Sections 111 to 133 refer to last examination of the bankrupt and to the order for his discharge, and are exceedingly indistinct and hazy. The firstjnanied of these Sections appoints a jßay for the last examination, which shall not be later than sixty days from the dato of the first meeting ; and at this last examination the bankrupt may make

application for his discharge, he having previously filed his accounts (verified by oath when required). At whoso oxpenso this filing and verification is to bo carried out does not appoar. The intention of the Act with respect to tho timo of granting " tho order ot discharge " cannot bo ascertained ; whether at tho last examination or at any subsequent period. As, however, the Act provides for the gazetting of notice of tho bankrupt's intention to apply for such order, and also for the printing and publication of tho bankrupt's accounts, it may be inferred that some subsequent time is intended. This, however, can only be inferred, inasmuch as there is nothing in the Act itself to prevent tho filing of the accounts, and the gazetting of notice before the last examination, and certainly nothing to prevent tho Court under tho circumstances granting tho order of discharge. Whether tho order of dischargo be opposed or no, tho Court may suspend such order in tho event of its being shown to the satisfaction of tho Court that the bankrupt has been guilty of any of the offences against the Act in Section 120 specified ; tho first being that lie has been guilty of any misdemeanour under the Act but has not been convicted thereof. It must bo remembered that one of the misdemeanours under the Act is " the witholding or concealment by the bankrupt of property to tho value of ten pounds, or the concealment of any debt due to him." In the event of the intention of the Act being construed to be, that the expenses of the debtor's petition and his subsequentproceedings to obtain a discharge from his liabilities shall bo borne by himsolf, tho fact of his being able to comply with the requirements ot the Act appears prima facia evidence that he must have somewhere or other a reserve fund to meet these exigencies. If he have not, how must hie discharge be obtained ? In either case the debtor is in a "fix." Undue preference, vexatious defence, improper or imperfect book-keeping, and fraud in the contraction of liabilities are among the specified grounds on which the discharge of a bankrupt may be suspended. The 146 th Section of the Act offers a premium to persons contemplating bankruptcy who may happen to have marriageable sons or daughters. This section apparently provides that a conveyance by a person in embarrassed circumstances on the marriage of any of his children shall hold good ; it may be imagined this can hardly be the intention of the Act; the inference to be drawn from its wording is, however, unmistakeable. Wilful concealment by any person, of property belonging to a bankrupt's estate, is punishable by the forfeiture of double the value of such property, and a penalty in addition of one hundred pounds. Section 163 is most absurd and tyrannical, directing that for a period of three months after the date of the bankrupt's order of discharge, letters addressed to him by post shall be re-directed to the trustee of his estate. The provisions of tho Act as to proof of debt are cumbersome and obscure. The twelve sections having relation to the declaration of dividends under the estate, are, to our thinking, quite unnecessary, as the previously directed proceedings will have swallowed up the whole of any insolvent estate long before its arrival at this point. If there be any sum left for division among the unfortunate bankrupt's creditors, it may be safely inferred that the estate on being entrusted to trustees, supervisors, and inspectors, was solvent to a degree of comparison several times in excess of its liabilities ; unless the magnitude of the interests involved has been very great indeed. One thing is certain, a small estate must be wholly swallowed up by the process directed in tho Act, while a very larye one will be so sweated as to be virtually reduced to a nullity. Sections 221-2, founded on the supposition that bankrupt's estates woundup under this process, may pay from ten to twenty shillings dividend in the pound, and directing proportionate allowances to be made to bankrupts in such cases, savor so excessively of burlesque, that the proposal under these circumstances to allow creditors interest on the amount of their long over due claims, as well as " to re-vest in the bankrupt, his heirs, executors, administrators and assigns," the surplus after the payment of such interest, may be taken as the continuation of the vein of the same rich dry humour. After acquired property of the bankrupt is by the Act held liable to the discharge of debts, claims, or demands, provable under the Bankruptcy law. The manner in which the law is to be set in motion to this end, or what the proof required as to tho position of the former bankrupt and his present ability, does not appear. "Upon the whole, we arrive at the conclusion that the present Act in dealing with insolvencies, renders con-

fusion worse confounded, and must be regarded as a great evil of which a very short time will make us too deeply sensible. There are other grave defects in the Act which we havo passed over. Out of evil, howover, there comes sometimes good, and tho unwieldy, unworkable nature of the present Act must necessitate reference to somowhat of the simple, but comparitivoly inexpensive process now in force in some of the neighboring colonies.