BREACH OF THE BANKRUPTCY ACT.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 12122, 12 August 1895, Page 2

BREACH OF THE BANKRUPTCY ACT.

. . • - — — ♦ — • - ■ • (Per Pb**3B Association.) . WElif/INO-OH, August 10. The -Stipendiary Magistrate had considerable difficulty to-day in dealing wit)i the case of Thomas Dickson, chargedwith a breach of the Bankruptcy Act, in having failed to koep proper books. Dickson bad been remanded fir the Probation Officer's report, and this was favourable to him. Mr M_rtin said this was the first case of the kind under the Act, .as in all previous cases there h.d beeh an element of fraud. Tho Crown Prosepctq** had ßtatoiJ .that £here wbb no tiiggVgtion of fraud in the present case, but merely ignorance of iho proper way in which books should be kept. ' He (Mr Martin) had made personal inquiries, and had found that there was truth in accused's stateiceats th*t the boolfs of the firm in which he had loarnt his trade, and books of retail grocers general'y, were kept in a similar manner to his own. The difficulty was to know what to do with accused. The Legislature had made no distinction between fraiilulent book-keeping and mere ignorance of the proper system. He thought the only thing to do was to"' bind the accused in his own recognisance of 410, to come up for sentence when called upon.