The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1874.

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1495, 25 November 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1874.

For the cause that lacks ssnletanc*, For the wrong that needs resitta»ce, For tho future in the distance. Ab4 tht ssod that we can iv.

No legislation has been more clamantly called for than that intended to abolish imprisonment for debt. The practice of putting a man in gaol for being poor, or it may be unfortunate, was regarded by almost common consent as barbarous, and utterly opposed to the spirit of the age. The various efforts therefore to purge the statute-book of New Zealand of a blot, that is no longer found on the laws of any other Australasian colony, have been watched with? general interest; and considerable chagrin has been felt, as one difficulty and contretemps after another, caused the amendment of the law to be deferred. In last session of the Assembly an Act with this ostensible intention obtained final ratification, and such as it was it might have done good; but it appears to have resulted in about as pretty a muddle as it is possible to conceive. It was fixed to come into operation on the first ot October, but required certain regulations to be drawn up withoc-t which it would be noperative. The country having lost the nestimable services of Mr Bat hgate, and not yet obtained the equally valuable services of Mr Bowen, or for some other reason, these regulations have not been framed. Bat it is not that matters remain in statu quo, for certain powers of Resi nt Magistrates having been taken away, and no similar powers having been conferred on any one owing to the absence of these regulations, a fraudulent debtor who wishes to breathe the air of freedom, and see new scenes can freely pay his creditors with a parting salaam from a steamer's quarterdeck, and no one can say him nay. It is a very pleasant state of things for creditors to contemplate, and , must be set down as one of the many benefits derived from having a Government that spends the'houra of the recess in one endless round of holiday making and seeing the world. If Mr Bowen is not frightened by the chorus I of welcome which hia advent to public life '

has evoked, we may anticipate that he wid make the little arrangements necessary to better regulate the relations of creditor and debtor; but in the meantime we shall not be surprised if not a few avail themselves of the opportunity of bidding good bye to hardhearted creditors and starting for other scenes where duns cease from troubling and the bothered are at rest.