Ст 5 10 (ii) An amalgamation or transfer shall not become A.D. 1923. (2) The said section as so modified shall apply to the transfer by a collecting society of its engagements to an 15 industrial assurance company as if in subsection (2) thereof for the words "any other registered society' there were substituted the words an industrial assurance company. 66 دو from com pany to 36. The provisions of the Assurance Companies Act, Transfer 20 1909, as amended by this Act relating to the transfer of of business industrial assurance business or liabilities arising in respect of industrial assurance business from one industrial assur- society. ance company to another, shall, with the necessary modifications, apply to the transfer of such business or 25 liabilities from an industrial assurance company to a collecting society. company. 37.-(1) Without prejudice to the powers conferred Conversion by section seventy-one of the Friendly Societies Act, 1896, of collecting the committee of management of a collecting society society into 30 having more than one hundred thousand members may petition the court to make an order for the conversion of the society into a mutual company under the Companies Acts, 1908 to 1917, and the court may make such an order if, after hearing the committee 35 of management, and other persons whom the court considers entitled to be heard on the petition, the court is satisfied, on a poll being taken, that fifty-five per cent. at least of the members of the society over sixteen years of age agree to the conversion: 40 Provided that before any such petition is presented to the court, notice of intention to present the petition shall be published in the Gazette, and in such newspapers A.D. 1923. Offences. (2) The court may give such directions as it thinks fit for settling a proper memorandum and articles of association of the company. (3) When a collecting society converts itself into a company in accordance with the provisions of this section, 5 subsection (3) of section seventy-one of the Friendly Societies Act, 1896, shall apply in like manner as if the conversion were effected under that section. Offences, Notices, &c. 38.-(1) Any collecting society which contravenes 10 or fails to comply with any of the provisions of this Act, or any directions by the Commissioner given thereunder, shall be guilty of an offence under this Act and the provisions of the Friendly Societies Act, 1896, with respect to offences thereunder and to proceedings in respect of 15 such offences shall apply to offences by societies under this Act, and, as so applied, extend to unregistered societies: Provided that the maximum penalty which may be inflicted for an offence under this Act shall be a fine not 20 exceeding one hundred pounds or, in the case of a continuing offence, a fine not exceeding fifty pounds a day during which the offence continues. (2) Any industrial assurance company which contravenes or fails to comply with any of the provisions 25 of this Act, or any directions given by the Commissioner thereunder shall be guilty of an offence under this Act, and a company guilty of such an offence shall be liable to the like penalties, recoverable in the same manner, as in the case of a default in complying with any of the 30 requirements of the Assurance Companies Act, 1909, and section twenty-three of that Act shall apply accordingly. (3) If any collector of a collecting society or industrial assurance company, or any other person, contravenes or fails to comply with any of the provisions of this Act 35 affecting such collector or other person, he shall be guilty of an offence under this Act and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds. (4) Notwithstanding any limitation on the time for the taking of proceedings contained in any Act, summary 40 proceedings for offences under this Act, or for offences under the Friendly Societies Act, 1896, where the society by or in respect of which, or the person by or in respect A.D. 1923. of whom, the offence is alleged to have been committed is a collecting society or an officer of such a society, may be commenced at any time within one year of the first 5 discovery thereof by the Commissioner, but not in any case after more than three years from the commission of the offence. [(5) Any fine imposed in pursuance of this Act shail. subject to section five of the Criminal Justice Adminis10 tration Act, 1914, but notwithstanding anything in any other Act, be paid into the Exchequer. 39. If any person wilfully makes, orders, or allows Penalties for to be made any entry or erasure in, or omission from falsification. a collecting book or premium receipt book, with intent to 15 falsify that book, or to evade any of the provisions of 20 25 this Act, he shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding three months or to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds or to both such imprisonment and fine. 40. Where any notice is required by this Act to be Notices. served upon any member or other person, the notice shall be in writing, and either delivered or sent by post to him, or, in the case of a notice of default, so delivered or sent or left at his last known place of abode. Bond Investment Business. 41.-(1) Bond investment business shall, for the Amendment purposes of the Assurance Companies Act, 1909, include of law recases where the subscriptions are payable at periodical bond investlating to intervals of over two months but less than six months, ment busi30 except where such business is sinking fund or capital ness. redemption insurance business, and accordingly for paragraph (e) of section one of that Act the following paragraph shall be substituted : 35 40 66 (e) Bond investment business, that is to say, the A.D. 1923. Regulations. Reports of sioner. Interpretation. (2) Where in return for subscriptions payable at periodical intervals of less than six months a person or body of persons corporate or unincorporate (not being registered or certified under the Acts relating to friendly societies, building societies, or trade unions) undertake, by 5 prospectus or otherwise, to pay to the subscriber at a future date the amount of the subscriptions with interest thereon (with or without a right on the part of the subscriber to the return of his subscriptions in the meantime), such business shall, for the purposes of the 10 Assurance Companies Act, 1909, be treated as bond investment business, and the card, book, or other document in which receipts of subscriptions are entered shall be treated as the instrument evidencing the contract, and the subscriber shall be treated as the owner of the 15 policy, subject however to such modifications of the provisions of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Schedules to that Act as may be prescribed by the Board of Trade for the purpose of adapting to such business as aforesaid the provisions of those schedules relating to bond investment 20 business. General. 42. The Commissioner may, subject to the approval of the Treasury, make regulations for prescribing anything which under this Act is to be prescribed and 25 [for imposing fees] and generally for carrying this Act into effect and all regulations so made shall forthwith be laid before both Houses of Parliament: Provided that the regulations so made shall not be deemed to be statutory rules to which section one of the 30 Rules Publication Act, 1893, applies. 43. The Commissioner in every year shall make a report of his proceedings under this Act, which may contain any comments he may consider desirable to make on the valuations, annual returns, or other documents or 35 matters brought before him under this Act, and any correspondence in relation thereto, and the report shall be laid before Parliament. 44.-(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires The expression "collector" shall include every person, howsoever remunerated, who, by himself or by any deputy or substitute, makes house to house visits 40 5 10 15 20 25 30 for the purpose of receiving premiums payable on A.D. 1923. The expression "premium" includes contribution : The expression "rules in relation to a company means the memorandum and articles of association The expression "the Companies Acts Other expressions have the same meaning as in the (2) Where under this Act the Commissioner awards that a collecting society be dissolved and its affairs wound up, the award shall be made in the like manner and have the like consequences, and be liable to be set aside in like 35 manner, as if it were an award made under section eighty of the Friendly Societies Act, 1896, and may direct in what manner the assets are to be divided or appropriated. (3) The application of this Act to Scotland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands shall be subject to the 40 same modifications as are expressed in the Friendly Societies Act, 1896, with respect to the application of that Act, and for the purposes of this Act the Isle of Man 59 & 60 Vict. c. 25. |