COMMERCIAL MORALITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19607, 8 April 1927, Page 8

COMMERCIAL MORALITY.

"IT IS AT A LOW EBB." OFFICIAL ASSIGNEE'S COMMENT. BUSINESS MEN IN DEFENCE. "If there is any truth in Sturrock's allegations," said the Official Assignee, Mr. G. N. Morris, at the meeting of creditors in the estate of Sturrock and Powley, builders, yesterday, it indicates a deplorable state of things in the city as far as business morality is concerned Unfortunately, I see a good deal of it. It may be only that I see the seamy side. I have plenty of cases before me that lead me to believe that the state of business morality in Auckland is at a low ©bb." -- At a later stage, Mr. F. G. Baskett (Winstone, Ltd.), challenged the assignee's remarks, and suggested that probably he had not meant them to have as wide an application as appeared at first blush. Mr. Baskett said he had had a good deal of experience in- regard to the commercial morality of Auckland, and he thought that it was as high as that of any other town in New Zealand, and as the commercial morality of New Zealand was as high as that of any other country in the world, he thought the community had arrived at a position of which it..could be proud. Probably the assignee had not intended his comment to be as broad as it appeared. The Official Assignee said he had dealt with cases day by day which were not straight and above-board. He had not meant to say that the whole oI the business men of Auckland showed a low standard of commercial morality. Mr. R. A. Aickin (Thos. Aickin and Son, Ltd.) endorsed Mr. Baskett's statement that the condition of commercial morality in the city was very high. It must be remembered that the cases that came before the Official Assignee represented the backwash of the country— they were instances which went to prove the general rule. The fact that the assignee got so many meetings of the kind now before him»indicated that the business men of the city were not altogether fools, though they might do foolish things at times. The fact that very occasionally they fell in in the way shown in Sturrock's case went only to show that with their knowledge of the generally high standard merchants were sometimes inclined to go a little further in trustfulness than they should. The Official Assigns© said his point of view was that day after day he found in bankruptcy cases something that was not clear and straight. He bound bankrupts trading with their creditors'.money for months after they must have known that their position was hopeless. An official assignee was bound to become a pessimist in time. He had not meant to suggest that the business community of Auckland was rotten through and through, but rather that there seemed to be a number of people whose business morality was not high. --