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Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 28, 13 June 1877, Page 2

Certain amendments have been made in u The Debtors' and Creditors' Act," and these amendments duly came into operation on the Ist. instant., We hare not received a copy of the new rules, but from a reference thereto contained in the Christcburch Press, learn something as to their intent. The first rule deals with the question , of professional cost?, and provides that they shall be assimilated to the scale of charges allowed under fcbe English i " Bankruptcy Act," "so far as the same may be suitable to the circum* stances of the Colony ;" otherwise the costs are to be regulated by the scale allowed upon taxation of civil proceedings in the Supreme Court. It will be recollected that considerable dissatisfaction was expresed by the legal profession afc ' the scale of costs originally provided by the Act, and this new rule was framed to meet the difficulty, but whether it will do so , remains to be seen. The succeeding rules refer more particularly to the method of fteirg the timo and place of meetings of creditors By the old rules such meetings were to ba held at the nearest Court House. The Begistrar is now empowered to appoint the time and place of meeting, at km dis-

cretion. It is provided, however, that no such meeting of creditors shall be called sooner than four days after the debtor has filed his declaration. The fifth rule provides that "no business shall be transacted at any meeting unless there shall be present either personally or by proxy at least three creditors." This latter rule is, perhap», the most important of all, but important, only, it would seem, in a negative sense, for it leaves one of the most vital objections to the Act precisely as it was before. It may be remem* bered that some short time ago the question was raised as to whether at a meeting all three creditors might be represented by one and the same proxy. Now the new rules do not appear to touch this question at all, or if they do they appear to ruther favor the idea that personal attendance of more than one creditor at any meet- [ ing is not absolutely imperative. It is i quite impossible that such a dangerous rule as this can ever be made to work satisfactorily. The idea of a bankrupts' certificate being withheld or granted at the caprice of a single creditor — a state of things not at all incompatible with the Act as it now stands— is in itself preposterous. As we have already hinted these later rules leave the Act pretty well as it was before, and in the face of the singular fatality which seems to attend all these efforts at "improvement," there seems to be no other alternative but to hang up the Act altogether, a course which it is more than probable will be adopted during the coming session.