The Waikato Times. TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1878.

Waikato Times, Volume XII, Issue 955, 6 August 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1878.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever state or-persuasion, religious or political. - ■ * * ■ *. ■ . ■* . + Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain.

Legislation for bankruptcy, like', the education question, lias been a stumbling block in the path of successive sessions of the New Zealand Legislature. The ghost of the educational difficulty has been laid at last, not so that of bankruptcy. The latter question is one with which the Assembly has not yet been competent to grapple. It is in fact a matter surrounded with difficulties. As trade is now carried on, credit enters so largely into the transactions of commerce, and competition drives so many to the wall, that too striugent laws must necessarily be avoided, for the possibility of failure is now almost always a oilculatiun iu euteiipg into business, while at the same time the possibility of doing business in a wholesale way is largely dependent upon the amount of credit that the retail trade can be solicited into taking. The real protection to trade lies less, under present commercial relations, in any baiikruntey laws tint may be in force, than iu the business-like sagacity of the creditor and his ability and shrewdness in the selection of those whom lie' chpses to make his debtors. Am! really thu

Assembly has Citne of late sessions to act as if it acknowledged this For years it had to legislate in the mat tor. session; a Bill was introduced wh||h, extreme harshness to was condemned as t>o Dr|||&nie,|||n another was pi'eson'el a going too far the other wjkyf made the paths of bankbroad and pleasant way* into which, in dull times, the not too oonscienious trader might be tempted to enter when lie could' perhaps otherwise have avoided it. And such a Bill was that passed in 1876. Since then, Parliament lias" not sought to pass a' fu]l/aud comprehensive Bankruptcy Act, de.diug with the "whole questidn, but has contented itself with endeavoring to hedge' round this too pleasant' path with traps and pitfalls for those who, bouud to enter it, will not walk straight and uprightly through if.

Such a measuse is that which is now before the Assembly, entitled the fraudulent Debtors Act, and as we learn from the telegraphic epitome of its provisions, this measure, if carried, will prevent much that has been done by : unprincipled debtors hitherto with impunity. Fraudulent debtors may be punished; for concealment, non-delivery, and detention of books and documents; if, after the commencement of bankruptcy, or within four months next, before the commencement thereof, he conceals any part of his property to the value of £lO, fraudently removes, makes auy material omission, not informing trustee, or falsa proof of debtj preventing production of documents, or books, destroying, mutilating,, or falsifying, or'being, privy to the same., any book or document, making or causing to be made, false entries, parting with, alteriug, or omitting auy document, or being priv>y to to the same, attempting to account'by fictitious losses or expenses, obtaining property on credit by false j representation, or fraud, pawning pledges, disposing of goods other than in the ordinary way, false representation or fraud to obtain the consent of creditoi s to a deed of arrangement. All such acts of mi^en^eanctuV ij - are *punisliable<with imprisonmentr not * exceeding "two years, with or without hard labour. The penalty for absconding with property worth ,£2O or upwards is a felony, to be punished with imprisonment no* exceeding two years. Fraudulently obtaining creditf, with imprisonment; not exceeding one year, making a gift, or transfer, with intent to defraud, concealing or removing any part of the property within two months before the date of any unsatisfied judgment, making any false claim, declaration, or statement of accounts, one year's inprisonhient. ] The debtor remains liabjefor the unpaid balance of any debt incurred or inci-eased before the bankruptcy or arrangement, iwhere defrauded creditors have not consented to the bankruptcy or arrangement otherwise than by provsng a debt, and accepting dividends. The Court may order prosecution, on the report of the trustee,; the expense to be paid out of the public treasury.