BANKRUPTCY FIGURES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 227, 25 September 1930, Page 10

BANKRUPTCY FIGURES.

LOW IN CHRISTCHURCH. OF 1929 BUSINESS. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHEISTCHUECH, this day. So far this year the number of bankruptcies in Christchurch is little more than half the total at the- corresponding period a year ago. Between 1925 and 1928 there was a steady increase in the number of 'bankruptcies, but during the /past two years there has been a decline, which, has been very marked this year. The bankruptcy figures, so far as Chrigtchurch is concerned, give very little support to the almost "general impression that things are very bad/thatJtraclo is stagnant and that profits have ceased to find their way into- the coffers of ibusiness people. For the nine months that ended on September 30, 1929,' the total "was 59, while for the same period this year the total is 33. There is, of course, no record of private compositions/ but it is not unreasonably to suppose that would bear approximately the same relationship each year to .the bankruptcy figures. " :>*£, •• - : Experience has shown, .that : 'some;> time elapses before the effects of. find expression in bankruptcy'figures.: Traders do not as a rule reach the end of their resources till some considerable time after the depressions that set thenbusinesses on the downhill path. The present figures may therefore be only a reflection of the better times a year or two ago, and it is possible that the effects of the present stringency, so far as insolvencies are concerned, will be reflected in an upward swing of Hie bankruptcy curve in the ctming year. In the meantime the commercial community welcomes its comparative freedom from the depressing influences of frequent gatherings of creditors.