The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, SATURDAY MORNING. Thursday, March 27, 1890. BANKRUPTCY BUBBLES.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 434, 27 March 1890, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, SATURDAY MORNING.

Thursday, March 27, 1890. BANKRUPTCY BUBBLES.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st tit be thy country's. Thy God’s, and truth’s.

Sheridan is said to have thought it a wicked waste of money to pay debts with it when one can get so much pleasure for it in other ways, and from the number of bankruptcies recorded there is much reason to believe that Sheridan has many followers—they may not delude them, selves as to the accuracy of the belief, but still take from it whatever practical advantage is to be gained. Those creditors who offer such opportunities may be much to blame, and there seems to be a grim satisfaction to some creditors in seeing others placed in the same position as themselves. At Mr Gannon’s meeting of creditors Mr Sievwright was quiie cheerful over the affair, and said he was pleased to see people occasionally get nipped because of the lesson it conveyed. Strange to say Mr Sievwright did not think of his own pocket, and recall to mind the fact that his presence at the meeting did not indicate that he had benefited much by such wholesome lessons—that he himself had not come out of the fire unsinged. Well, all the pleasure that can be derived from such cases as the bankruptcy of Mr Gannon falls far short of the pain which it ought to cause in anyone who has at heart the well-being of the community, and we are afraid if our public men are to be judged by the standard attempted to be set up at the meeting of creditors there is little hope of Gisborne ever taking that rank which it should aksume in the colony. The bankruptcy itself is an affair with which the genera! public is only indirectly interested—though that may be a serious

interest—but it is a very different thing when it is endeavored to set up the bankrupt as a pattern public man. It was pomted out that he had given his services as a member of the Harbor Board and County Council, but surely no one will seriously tell us that there is in our midst such a dearth of men willing to devote some of their time to the public service that we must fall back on men whose own affairs, when exposed, are proved to be in such a sorry mess that only a strong effort on the part of the man himself and a desire to get his private matters put to rights, can place him in a position which an honest man ought to occupy. In our opinion it is rathertheratepayers who have to be considered and sympathised with if they should unknowingly elect to public positions men whose time ought- .to be devoted to the attention required by the state of their private affairs. On going into the matters connected with this bankruptcy we find a state of things that no explana ion or plausible tale will place a good face upon. On February 19th, 1885, Mr Gannon held a meeting of his creditors at the Official Assignee’s office. It was then resolved that time should be allowed for the payment of debts, and Messrs Adair and Townley were appointed trustees. They succeeded in getting out of the estate about 17s 6d in the £ for the creditors, and there was a clean sheet lor Mr Gannon to make a fresh start in life. Being at that age when a man ought to be able to make the best use of his abilities, and having a knowledge which with steady work should soon have enabled him to gain a good position, he was freed from his liabilities, but only to incur another lot. On February 9th, 1888, the debtor had got in so heavily again that he found it desirable to call another meeting of his creditors, the liabilities being set down at Z 1235. He offered to pay ten shillings in thepound in twelvemonths,to givesecurity for twenty shillings in the pound, or pay in full in eighteen months. The block of 4000 acres, which at the meeting last week he valued at fifteen shillings, at the meeting in 1888 he valued at ten shillings an acre. How the land comes to be now valued at half as much again as in 1888, when every description of land has since then depreciated in value, is one of those things which some explanation is required to place in a satisfactory light, though it is hard to see what explanation can possibly be forthcoming. Then on January 6, 1890, another private meeting ofcreditors was held, and there it was actually proposed by Mr Maude that a penny in the pound be accepted in full satisfaction. It has been suggested that there is an attempt to make a political affair of the bankruptcy. If that really were the case it would be a positive scandal, but we feel convinced that no person but one whose nature is completely steeped in political passion could be guilty of anything of the kind, and the political party that took upon itself to move in such a matter would be simply prostituting its policy. The case should be considered apart from the least tincture of politics, and, making every allowance, it is impossible to do otherwise, than denounce the bankruptcy as a black mark against the district. So far from their being any justification for the ad misericordiam argument, which one creditor pleaded—probably with moistened eyes —it is nothing short of trying to make a farce of the whole thing. If a bankrupthad got placed in such a position through any misfortune there might be room for sympathy, but when we see a man of Mr Gannon’s ability coolly facing his creditors and offering the nonsensical excuses that he did it is time we looked to the good name of the district. Can any reasonable man think the bankrupt has made even a decent effort to extricate himself from the difficulties by which through no fault but his own he has become surrounded ?

The public virtues which have been trumpeted forth do not form an excuse for Mr Gannon, but in reality make his case appear all the worse. If those public services were rendered at the expense of tradesmen who find it hard enough to pay their own way they are deserving of a return that differs from gratitude. We imagine that a suffering public would be more thankful if such men stood aside and left the control of public affairs to men—and it is an affront to say we have not got them in the district—who can manage their private affairs better than Mr Gannon has done. It is of course for the creditors to say what stand they intend to take up, but we might point out that those creditors who give proxies without any instructions as to how they are to be employed would show a higher sense of their duties as citizens—if they do not care to lose time in attending meetings—by taking no part at all in the conduct of the thing.