The Westport Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1870.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 643, 9 April 1870, Page 2

The Westport Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1870.

There is probably no more difficult task for a legislature to accomplish than the framing of a Bankruptcy Act which shall at once meet the case of the honest but unfortunate trader, and, at the same time, sufficiently protect creditors against the frauds and malpractices of the dishonest. As a rule young and go-ahead communities fly into extremes, and New Zealand, in the various bankruptcy laws enacted, has proved no exception to this rule. Until recently the debtor was treated with uncommon and in many instances unnecessary severity, and any creditor had it in his power to deprive him of his liberty and all opportunity of assisting himself or realising his assets to the best advantage. The lawmakers have now rushed into the other extreme, and the facility with which a bankrupt may now succeed in wiping out his liabilities offers a very powerful inducement to the dishonest to swindle, and to the reckless to overtrade. In no portion of New Zealand is the present bankruptcy law more calculated to work badly than on the goldfields. Society is less settled, and the fact of a man having taken the misfortune or a desire ta rob h"is creditors, does not necessarily involve any great loss of position or injuriously affect his relations with the community. Any casual acquaintance with the bankruptcy proceedings in the courts will at once show the truth of our remarks ; few insolvents, if any, evince the slightest degree of penitence or 3hame at their position, and for the most part, experiencing little or no difficulty in obtaining a discharge, they emerge from their comfortable refuge to repeat the process at no distant date with a success commensurate to their own abilities and the simplicity of their victims. So notoriously easy has

it become to pass through the court, that the declaration of insolvency is not unfrequently the menace with which an importunate creditor is met, and he, if a wise man, prefers the rod to be held in terrorem over his head and run the risk of waiting rather than force the debtor to file his schedule. Under the English law it is not competent for the debtor to file his own declaration of insolvency, and in this one particular it possesses what must beacknowledged is a great advantage over the New Zealand law. Both in England and New Zealand the law directs that any property acquired by a bankrupt, discharged without having paid a dividend of ten shillings, may be attached ; but while in the one case the process is extremely simple, the proof of the debt in the Bankruptcy Court being sufficient evidence of the liability, less the dividend that may have been paid, with us the forms are more tedious and costly. The practice in New Zealand of permitting the insolvent the management of his estate until the appointment of a trustee is also productive of much fraud. Too long a time is generally allowed to elapse, and in the interval the dishonest trader very generally avails himself of the opportunity of making away with all ivailable assets, or otherwise placing bis property out of the reach of his creditors. The subject is one of sufficient importance to commend itself ;o careful consideration, and to none nore than the commercial community.