The Present Bankruptcy

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 14, 12 July 1887, Page 4

The Present Bankruptcy

The Wellington Evening Press of Friday last contains the following excellent remarks Here we have this Waters case, where it is proved that a man has for years been doing everything which the Bankruptcy Act says he shall not do, and leaving undone everything which the Bankruptcy Act says he shall do. And yet he gets off triumphantly. The celebrated Lord Peterborough used to boast that he had committed sixteen different capital offences before he was as many years old. Yet he not only lived and flourished, but had an extremely distinguished career. Bo with Waters. At an age when most men of business are only beginning to laboriously and by slow stages to become acquainted with ways that are dark and tricks that are vain, Waters appears to have taken all the different clauses of the

Bankruptcy Act and knocked them into a cocked hat seriatim. Like Alexander weeping because there were no more worlds to conquer, he must feel quite disgusted because there are no more Bankruptcy Laws to break, either in the letter or the spirit. We are told that the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life. Waters is an exception to all rules. The letter killeth

him not, but the spirit maketh him frisaier than ever. He has stood his trial for embezzlement and emerged from it with flying colours, so much so that the prosecutor got all the blame and Waters all the credit. Then be ran the gauntlet of a string of criminal charges under the Bankruptcy Act, as long as one's arm ; and again he has come out swimmingly. Yet nobody doubts that he had the money. That, in fact, is not disputed. The refreshing candour of the whole thing is one of its most pleasing features. There was no necessity, indeed,

for Waters to conceal anything. He boldly took his stand upon the law, and the law upheld him nobly. In every instance where the Judge would have committed him or convicted him if he could, there was some sufficient

reason why he could not; and in every instance where he could have committed or convicted him if he would, there there was some sufficient reason why he should not. It seems clear that Waters has kept well within the law. So the prosecution broke down, and the bankruptcy is closed ; and the public, we venture to think, having had a good deal of inexpensive excitement out of Waters in one way or another, are very fairly satisfied that everything is as it ought to be, —or nearly so. Waters will probably consider that he has done enough for glory now, and will be disposed to rest upon his laurels. Weshouldnotbeatall surprised if he were to turn his energies ana abilities, —which are evidently considerable—into a new direction and become wealthy and respected. Many a man in an elevated and enviable position, if he thought about it at all, might date his good fortune and moral reformation from some successful bankruptcy which, perhaps, he has forgotten all about. Meanwhile, we sincerely trust that there will be no tinkering with the Bankruptcy Act on account of Waters’ case. The Act has been abundantly proved to be a thoroughly rotten and futile law. The Judges laugh at it: the lawyers des* pise it, and get fat on it; the bankrupts have a grand time under it, and the more fraudulent they are, the grander the time they have. Yet we are assured that it is the best Bankruptcy Act that ever was framed or that ever can be framed. The logical conclusion, we should say, is obvious. There is only one way to deal with it, and that is to improve it ofi the face of the Statute Book : and not to put any other Bankruptcy Act iu its place. This last point is important.