Another New Clause ("Courts to which proceedings on moneylending transactions are to be taken ") brought up, and read the first time as follows:

5

"(1) Any action by a moneylender for the recovery of money lent by him or for enforcing any agreement or security relating to any such money may

(a) where the debt, demand, or damage

10

claimed is not more than three hundred pounds; or

(b) where the title to any corporeal or incorporeal hereditament shall come in question, and neither the value of the lands, tenements, or hereditaments in dispute nor the rent payable in respect thereof shall exceed the sum of three hundred pounds by the year;

15 be commenced in the county court and heard and determined according to the provisions of the County Courts Acts, 1888 to 1924, as amended by any subsequent enactment, notwithstanding any limit imposed by statute on the jurisdiction 20 of that court:

Provided that nothing in this sub-section shall affect the provisions of section sixty-seven of The County Courts Act, 1888 (which relates to the jurisdiction of the county court in equity).

25 (2) Where any such action as aforesaid is brought by a moneylender in the High Court, section eleven of The County Courts Act, 1919, as amended by any subsequent enactment, shall have effect as if three hundred pounds were 30 substituted for one hundred pounds as the minimum sum which (save as in that section otherwise expressly provided) a plaintiff must recover in order to entitle him to any more costs than those to which he would have been entitled 35 if the action had been brought in the county

court.

(3) Subject as hereinafter provided, no action by a moneylender for the recovery of money lent by him or for enforcing any agreement or security 40 relating to any such money shall be brought in any inferior court other than a county court:

Provided that His Majesty may by Order in Council direct that any inferior court specified in the Order shall have the same jurisdiction as 45 respects such actions as aforesaid as it would. have had but for the provisions of this subsection, and any such Order may contain such

36

PROCEEDINGS OF STANDING COMMITTEE A.

provisions as appear to His Majesty expedient with respect to the making of rules of court for 50 regulating the procedure to be followed in the case of any such action, and may be revoked or varied by any subsequent Order made in like

manner.

(4) Before any Order in Council is made under 55 this section a draft thereof shall be laid before each House of Parliament for a period of not less than twenty-one days during the session of Parliament, and if either House before the expiration of the said period presents an address to His 60 Majesty against the draft or any part thereof, no further proceedings shall be taken thereon, but without prejudice to the making of new draft Order-(Mr. Burman).

Question, "That the Clause be read a second time,"put, and agreed to.

An Amendment proposed, to leave out sub-sections (1) and (2)-(Sir Malcolm Macnaghten).-Question, "That the words proposed to be left out stand part of the Clause," put, and negatived.

Clause, as amended, added to the Bill.

Another New Clause ("Preliminary proceedings before application to courts ") brought up, and read the first time as follows:

"(1) After the passing of this Act no action or proceeding shall be brought or continued by a moneylender or any other person, firm, or body corporate, against a debtor, surety, or any person 5 whatsoever, in respect of a moneylending transaction entered into with a moneylender without the leave of the court being first obtained.

(2) No execution, judgment summons, or other proceeding shall be taken or issued upon any 10 judgment recovered in respect of such a moneylending transaction without the leave of the court being first obtained.

(3) No bankruptcy proceedings shall be commenced or continued in respect of such money

15 lending transaction without the leave of the court being first obtained.

(4) Any application for leave of the court provided for by this section shall be made to a master in chambers in the High Court or to the 20 registrar sitting in chambers in the county court, as the case may be. In either case an appeal shall lie from any order of the master or registrar to the judge sitting in chambers only, and there shall be no appeal from the decision of the judge 25 in chambers except at the instance of the borrower.

(5) Upon the hearing of an application for leave under this section the court shall hear the parties interested, and may hear and determine any question relating to the claim, and particularly 30 shall determine the rate of interest or the amount to be paid as interest in respect of any loan, and shall fix and determine the manner of payment by instalments according to the debtor's position, taking into consideration his other debts and 55 liabilities.

(6) No orders shall be made upon any such application as against a surety for any larger instalment or amount than has been made against the principal debtor, but the court may, after 40 taking into consideration the position of a surety and his other debts and liabilities, make such smaller order than that made against the principal debtor as the court shall think just and reasonable.

(7) An order made on an application under 45 this section may give leave to the applicant to take or continue proceedings if default has been made in the payment of any instalment so fixed, but the debtor or surety may, notwithstanding any such order, apply from time to time to vary 50 any such order or for further time to be granted for any payment to be made thereunder, and the court may make from time to time such order as it shall think just and reasonable.

(8) Each party shall bear their own costs of 55 and incident to any application or appeal in connection with any such application as is provided for by this section "-(Lieut.-Colonel Heneage).

D

38

PROCEEDINGS OF STANDING COMMITTEE A.

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Clause be read a second time."

Motion and Clause, by leave, withdrawn.

Schedule 1.

An Amendment made, in page 18, line 14, by leaving out the word "were," and by inserting the words "are taken to be "-(Captain King),-instead thereof.

Schedule, as amended, agreed to.

Schedule 2, agreed to.

Ordered To Report the Bill, as amended, to the House.

Printed under the authority of IIIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE

by J. B. Nichols & Sous, Parliament Mansions, Westminster, S. W. 1