CO129-180 - Public Offices & Others - 1877 — Page 40

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with all the rights of assignees in bankruptcy. The difficulty of so construing this clause is very much increased by the two clauses which follow it. The next is section 108, which is to this effect: "After the copy of the entry made by the

Registrar as aforesaid shall have been pub- "lished in the Hong Kong Government Gazette, "no execution or other process against the debtor's property in respect of any debt, and

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no process against his person in respect of

any debt, other than such process by writ or "warrant as may be had against a debtor

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about to depart out of the colony, shall be "available to any creditor or claimant without "leave of the Court; and a certificate of the filing and registration of such deed under the hand of the Registrar, and the seal of the Court, shall be available to the debtor for all purposes as a protection in bankruptcy." It

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has been admitted that this section cannot apply. partly because it refers to an entry in the Hong Kong Government Gazette which would apply only to instruments described in section 163, and, further, because it could not have been intended that by merely executing such a deed as has been spoken of under section 165, the debtor should be able to protect his property from process. The next section (169) is as follows : "In case any petition shall be presented for "an adjudication against a debtor after his "execution of such deed or instrument as is herein-before described, and pending the time "allowed for the registration of such deed or instrument, all proceedings under such peti- "tion may be stayed if the Court shall think fit, and in case such deed or instrument "shall be duly registered as aforesaid, the "petition shall be dismissed." It has been admitted that the words "deed or instrument" here must be narrowed in their construction to

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deeds or instruments under section 163; and that it is impossible to suppose that this section could apply to deeds under section 165. But if that be so, if these two sections admittedly do not so apply,- -as it is clear they cannot apply,-

it seems extremely difficult to regard the section immediately before them as applying. Their Lordships are disposed to read these three sec- tions together, to treat sections 168 and 169 as supplementary to section 167, and to hold them

all as applying only to deeds coming within the provisions of section 163. Section 165 may be described as an isolated section containing an isolated provision, doubtless a very valuable one, to the effect that if a debtor chooses to execute any deed or agreement relating to the management of his property, or the liquidation of his debts, or his release from liability, he shall not keep it secret, but shall register it for the information of persons whom it shall concern, under the penalty of its not being admissible in evidence unless he does register it.

Such being the view which their Lordships would have been disposed to take of this ordinance if there had been no authority on the subject, they think it right now to refer to some of the cases decided upon the construction of the Act of 1861, the clauses of which, as before observed, are almost identical, in reference

to the subject matter now under discussion, with the clauses in the Ordinance of Hong Kong,

The first case to be referred to is the case of Exparte Morgan (1. De Gex, Jones, and Smith,

p. 288), which was decided by Lord Westbury, than whom, it will be admitted, no man was more competent to construc the Bankruptcy Act of 1861. The part of the case material to the present inquiry is correctly stated in the first part of the marginal note:-"The registration "of trust deeds under the 192nd and under

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