re the bankrupt holds an office of trust in any
savings bank or friendly society, any balance in his hands due to such bank
or society has been held under the acts relating to these bodies to be
payable in preference to any other claim against the estate. Other
preferential claims are regulated by the Bankruptcy Acts and by the
Preferential Payments in Bankruptcy Act of 1888, and include taxes,
parochial and other local rates for not more than one year, wages and
salaries for four months, but not exceeding L50 (limited in the case of
ordinary labourers and workmen to two months' wages not exceeding L25), and
agricultural labourers' claims not exceeding one year's wages, if hired by
special contract for payment of a lump sum at the end of a year. These
claims are entitled to preference not only over funds in the hands of the
trustee, but also over the proceeds of any distraint levied by the landlord
within the three months prior to the receiving order, the latter in that
case becoming a preferred creditor for the amount so paid. Articled clerks
and apprentices may also be allowed repayment of a proportion of the
premium on their unexpired agreements. On the other hand, usual trade
discounts (exceeding 5%) must be deducted from traders' proofs, and the
following claims are postponed until the general creditors are paid in
full, viz. claims by a married woman for loans to the husband for the
purposes of his business, claims for loans advanced to any person in
business at a rate of interest varying with the profits, and claims for
interest in excess of 5% per annum. Subject to these exceptions all debts
proved in the bankruptcy must be paid _pari passu_. Any surplus after
payment of 20s. in the pound and interest at the rate of 4% per annum, from
the date of the receiving order, is payable to the bankrupt.

_Proofs of Debt._--All claims and liabilities present or future, certain or
contingent, arising out of obligations incurred before the date of the
receiving order are provable in the bankruptcy, an estimate of the
liability in the case of contingent debts being made by the trustee subject
to appeal to the court. But demands in the nature of unliquidated damages
arising otherwise than by reason of a contract, promise or breach of trust
are not provable. A secured creditor if he proves must either surrender his
security, or value the security and prove for the balance; and the trustee
can thereupon, subject to the creditor's