EIGHT YEARS' BANKRUPTCY BUSINESS, OTAGO AND SOUTHLAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9564, 21 October 1892, Page 3

EIGHT YEARS' BANKRUPTCY BUSINESS, OTAGO AND SOUTHLAND.

We are indebted to the Official Assignee for the following interesting return :— Number of ; Paid to Year. Bankruptcies. Proofs.- Creditors. '1884 201 £156,104 £16,323 ISBS 247 121,812 . 30.059 ,1896 26S 173,539 53,129 •1887 292 162,991 36.752 1888 203 145,099 ■'■•.-' 22,577 18S9 130 103,307 21,171 IS9O 137 100,323 18,564 1891 145 95.878 15,957 Totals... 1623 £1,062,053 £214,482 Balance in bank 31st December 1891 3,829 Total ■'. ..£218,311 The division among the creditors includes payments for preferential claims, and amounts to 4s l^d in the pound nearly on the proofs. The result is a loss to the creditors of L 844,000 in eight years; but even this does not represent the whole loss, as in numerous cases where no dividend is expected creditors do not prove. Taking the figures as they stand, however, and multiplying by four, to represent the whole colony, we have a total loss in the eight years of L 3,376,000, or L 422,000 a year! We might add at least 50 per cent, to this to represent debts not received from persons who do not become bankrupt, but make private arrangements, or leave the colony, or whose accounts are written off from the impossibility of the trader recovering them by sueing. This would show a leakage of over L 630.000 a year of business profits from bad debts alone. Iti is a concealed poor rate of LI per head per annum for every man, woman, and child in the colony, which the whole solvent community has to bear through the default of others. This represents the support of 12,600 people at LSO a year each.

.It is consoling to see that in the past three years there has been a great falling off in the number of bankruptcies, and in the amount of dtibis. Bub surely there must be something wrong in a system of credit which produces such results.

We must confess we did not'thiuk the amount divided among creditors would average so much as 4s Lkl in the pound, and it says something for the administration of the department that such is the cuse. It is true this includes preferential claims for rent, wages, &c, which amount to from 20 to 25 per cent, of the whole; but of course the assignee is not responsible for the mode of distribution, but the act itself. The new bill comes inio force on Ist January next, and it remains to be seen whether its increased stringency will further reduce the number of bankruptcies. It is to be feared that nothing but a radical chaDge in our system of credit will effectually cure the evil.