How to get on in Wellington.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1834, 19 May 1886, Page 2

How to get on in Wellington.

That irrepressible Wellington lawyer, Mr Jellicoe, who. to quote his own phrase, “ has so many sins to answer for,” has, for once in a way, given utterance to a bit of caustic and telling truth. The occasion was this, Mr Jellicoe was applying in the Bankruptcy Court for the discharge of an unhappy insolvent baker named Bell who had got his books into a terrible muddle which nobody could clear up, and whose estate would only pay a shilling in the pound. It was rather a fishy ” case to pull through, but Mr Jellicoe made a good fight of it, contending that the bankrupt was an almost illiterate man who had kept the best accounts he eould, and had carried on, believing that in the end he would be able to pay his creditors. And, added Mr Jellicoe “If the court wishes to teach the people of Wellington the law of Bankruptcy, it need not make an example of an unfortunate baker, when there is far higher game to shoot at. It seems to me that in order for a man to get on in Wellington, all he requires to do is to go into business, obtain exclusive credit, and rob his neighbors all round; while at the same lime be lives in high style and gives as many balls and parties as be can. U a man adopts this plan, and as the result, gets into the Bankruptcy Coart, he will be allowed to get through pleasantly and smoothly.” Mr Jellicoe was perfectly right in what he said. The trader, merchant, and professional man in Wellington, who carries on business recklessly, lives extravagantly, keeps up a continued round of balls and parties, is clothed in purple and fine linen and lares sumptuously every day, usually finds that when insolvency comes he can have a pleasant “winding np by arrangement,” cr else, if he has to “ file his schedule,” gets through the Bankruptcy Court without either annoyance or unpleasantness. It is the small trader who has (ought a hard battle, lived penurN ously, and has yet “ come to grief,” who finds his creditors angry and vindictive, and who sometimes is sent to gaol as a criminal, because he may have secreted some pots of jam or pounds of tea for household use, till things got better. In Wellington the small offender is subjected to tbelash of the criminal law and the gibbet of the Public Press, while the big swell rogue whose liabilities are tens of thousands, often escapes Scot free. Mr Jellicoe hit upon a profound truth when he sketched out his plan of “ How a fraudulent trader cun get on in Wellington ” and yet idtogetn*. r escape the past penalties of his rogueries. Ao* fit the particular case in which Mr Jellicoe was acl'og, his arguments appear to have had some effect Wlfb the Chief Justice, who said he would not punish the small bankrupt baker, Beil, in a criminal way, but would probably only withnld for u lime bis order of discharge. When so many big rogues escape, it is perhaps us well that a little one like Bell should be tenderly dealt with.