THE RYLEY CASES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVII, Issue 11210, 6 March 1897, Page 5

THE RYLEY CASES.

[Pee Press Association.]

DUNEDIN, March 5.

At the Supreme Court to-day, the hearing of the charges of breaches of the Bankruptcy Act against John Eyley was continued. The Official Assignee having been examined, and Mr Scott, accountant with Mr Eyley, having given evidence, the case for the prosecution closed. No evidence was called for the defence. Mr Sim, in. addressing the jury at considerable length in meeting the various counts of the indictment, said that the Colonial Bank put Eyley into business and kept him there after he saw he was making a loss. Practically it was the bank’s business, but eventually it threw the responsibility on Eyley, and finally shut him down to seize -£3450 of outside creditors’ money, and smashed the thing, making a loss, by forced sales, of about £20,000. No single act of dishonesty had been suggested. They made a charge in the original information that he obtained advances by means of false balance-sheets, but withdrew it because it would have involved the calling of Messrs Ewing, Henry Mackenzie, and Vigors. He compared the position of Mr Eyley before he got' in for the mill with what it was now In 1890 he was a respected and loved minister of the Presbyterian congregation. He had saved and invested money for his old age, and had many friends ; now ho was bankrupt—a pauper—and his position in the church gone. His savings had gone, and even his liberty was at -stake. The jury should not sacrifice him for the sins of others.

Mr Justice Williams, in summing up, pointed out that the bankruptcy law here was more stringent than in England. The matters specified in Section 137 of our Act are, for the most part, merely grounds for suspending an order of discharge. The people of this colony, through their representatives, had considered it right, so to speak, to stiffen the standard of commercial morality here, and it was the duty of the jury and the duty of everyone concerned in the administration of bankruptcy to see that the intentions of the Legislature were given complete effect to. The jury, after an absence of two hours, returned with a verdict of Not guilty on all counts, and Mr Eyley was discharged.