on reference, and registrar to determine who shall pay them. And be it enacted, that it shall be lawful for one of Her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State from time to time to fix reasonable fees to be paid on any such proceedings before the registrar, and all such fees shall be paid in the first instance by the trustees of the society or branch; and the registrar shall determine in and by his award or order by which of the parties and in what proportion the expense of such fees shall be finally borne; and the trustees of such society or branch, having paid such fees, shall be entitled to recover them from the party or parties against whom they shall be so awarded.26

32. Member of Friendly Society may be a witnessAnd be it enacted, that on the trial of any action, indictment, or other proceeding respecting the property of any society established under the provisions of this act, or in any proceedings before any justice of the peace, judge of the County Court, or the registrar, any member of such society shall be a competent witness, and shall not be objected to on account of any interest he may have as such member in the result of such action, indictment, or other proceeding.27

33. Minors may be members, and have legal authority to act, but not to hold office.-And be it enacted, that a minor may become a member of any such society or branch, and he is hereby empowered to execute all instruments, and give all necessary acquittances; provided always, that such minor shall not be competent during his minority to hold any office as director, trustee, treasurer, or manager in such society or branch.28

26 This section is similar to 9 & 10 Vict. c. 27, s. 18.

27 This, in effect, is the same as 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 40, s. 10.

28 The 10 Geo. 4, c. 56, s. 32, required the consent of the parents, masters, or guardians of a minor to his being admitted a member of any such society, in order to his being legally a member, and invested with the rights and liabilities of a member. This is omitted in this act, and, therefore, such consent will no longer, it seems, be requisite.

34. Consent necessary for dissolution of society.— And be it enacted, that it shall not be lawful for the members of any such society or branch, by any rule or order or resolution, to dissolve or determine such society or branch, so long as the intents or purposes declared by the rules of such society, or any of them, remain to be carried into effect, without obtaining the votes of consent of five-sixths in value of the then existing members, to be ascertained in manner hereinafter mentioned, and also the consent of all persons then receiving or then entitled to receive relief either on account of sickness, age, or infirmity, to be testified under their hands individually and respectively; and for the purpose of ascertaining the votes of such fivesixths in value every member shall be entitled to one vote, and an additional vote for every five years that he may have been a member; provided also, that no one member shall have more than five votes in the whole; and in all cases of dissolution the intended appropriation or division of the funds or other property shall be fairly and distinctly stated in the proposed plan of dissolution prior to such consent being given; and it shall not be lawful for such society or branch by any rule to direct the division or distribution of such stock or fund, or any part thereof, to or amongst the several members of such society, other than for carrying into effect the general intents and purposes declared by the rules originally certified; and all such rules for the dissolution or determination thereof without such consent as aforesaid, or for the distribution or division of the stock or funds contrary to the rules, shall be void and of none effect; and in the event of such division or misappropriation of the funds without the consent hereby declared to be requisite, any trustee or other officer or person aiding or abetting therein shall be liable to the like penalties as are in this act provided in cases of fraud: provided always, that it shall be lawful for any two or more societies or branches to become united or incorporated in one society or branch, upon such terms as shall be

approved by the major part of the trustees and board of management of both societies or branches.29

35. Rules, &c., under hand of registrar to be received without proof of signature.-And be it enacted, that all rules, alteration of rules, transcript or copy of or extracts from all rules and alteration of rules, and all awards, writings, and documents, of what nature or kind soever, relating to any society or branch, directed by any act or acts of Parliament to be certified by the registrar, and purporting to be signed by him, shall, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, be received in all courts of law and equity and elsewhere, without proof of the signature thereto.

36. Executors, &c., of officers of certified Friendly Societies to pay money due to society before any other debts, within forty days after demand in writing.—And be it enacted, that if any person appointed to any office in any Friendly Society or branch thereof established under this act, and being intrusted with the keeping of the accounts, or having in his hands or possession, by virtue of his said office or employment, any moneys or effects belonging thereto, or any deeds or securities relating to the same, shall die, or become a bankrupt or insolvent, or have any execution or attachment or other process issued, or action or diligence raised, against his lands, goods, chattels, or effects, or property or estate, heritable or moveable, or make any assignment, disposition, assignation, or other conveyance thereof, for the benefit of his creditors, his heirs, executors, administrators, or assignees, or other persons having legal right, or the sheriff or other officer executing such pro

29 This section makes it unlawful and punishable with the like penalty as provided by sect. 26, in cases of fraud to make any rule for the dissolution of a society contrary to its rules without the consent of five-sixths in value of its members. It is, in like manner, made unlawful to divide the stock of such society, otherwise than for the purposes declared by its rules originally certified. The section is taken from 10 Geo. 4, c. 56, s. 26.

cess, or the party using such action or diligence, shall, within forty days after demand made in writing by the order of any such society or branch, or of not less than three of the committee of management assembled at any meeting thereof, deliver and pay over all moneys and other things belonging to such society or branch to such person as such society or committee shall appoint, and shall pay out of the estates, assets, or effects, heritable or moveable, of such person, all sums of money remaining due which such person received by virtue of his said office or employment, before any other of his debts are paid or satisfied, or before the money directed to be levied by such process as aforesaid, or which may be recovered or recoverable under such diligence, is paid over to the party issuing such process or using such diligence; and all such assets, lands, goods, chattels, property, estates, and effects shall be bound to the payment and discharge thereof accordingly.30

30 This section is similar to 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 40, s. 12, which extended the cases provided by the earlier acts in which the society was to be entitled to priority of payment. The debts to be preferred are not, by the present act any more than by the former acts, generally all debts due to the society, but only debts from an officer intrusted with the keeping of the accounts or having the effects of the society in his possession by virtue of his office; so that if the society trusts any person upon his private security, those debts have no preference (Ex parte the Amicable Society of Lancaster, 6 Ves. 98); and under 33 Geo. 3, c. 54, s. 10, it was held that the right to preference did not exist merely by the debtor being an officer of the society, but that it was necessary that the money should have come into his hands by virtue of his office; consequently, money lent by a society to one of its officers upon a special contract, as upon his promissory note, has been decided not to be money in his hands by virtue of his office: (Ex parte Ashley, 6 Ves. 441; Ex parte Ross, 6 Ves. 802; Ex parte Stamford Friendly Society, 15 Ves. 280; Ex parte Buckland, 1 Buck. 514.) The same construction will be applicable to this section of the present act, which also confines the cases to where the officer has had money or effects by virtue of his office. Where, however, a bankrupt, on being appointed treasurer of a Friendly Society, was by the rules to pay interest on a stated sum in hand, it was held, in Ex parte Ray (1 M. & Ch. 537), that that did not constitute a loan, but came within 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 40, s. 12, as being money in his hands by virtue of his office as treasurer. In a case in which the rules of the society provided that the treasurer retaining upwards of 107. more than seven days after he was required to pay it over should be excluded from the society, and the rules also decided that a particular firm should be the bankers of the society, with

37. Member belonging to more than one society not to be entitled to benefits exceeding 100l., or 30l. annuity, or 20s. sickness.-And be it enacted, that if any person after the passing of this act shall become a member of more than one society or branch, and thereby be entitled to certain benefits on account of the same kind of assurance from more than one society or branch, it shall not be lawful for him to claim or receive such benefit from any or either society or branch without signing a declaration that the joint value or amount of all the benefits in any one kind of assurance to which he may be entitled from any society or societies, branch or branches, of which he may be a member, does not in the aggregate exceed the amount of one hundred pounds in one sum, or an annuity of thirty pounds per annum, or a sum in sickness of twenty shillings per week; and in case such declaration shall not be true, such member shall be liable to the penalties herein before enacted in case of fraud.3. 31

38. Power to certified societies to invest moneys with National Debt Commissioners, upon declaration that they belong exclusively to the society; in case declaration not true money to be forfeited and applied in manner directed by 9 Geo. 4, c. 92.—And be it enacted, that it shall be lawful for any certified society, or certified branch thereof, established under this act, to pay directly into the Bank of England any sum of money not less than fifty pounds to the account of the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt,

power for a general meeting to appoint other bankers, it was held that the bankers for the time being were not officers so as, upon their bankruptcy, to entitle the society to payment in full: (Ex parte Harris, 1 De Gex, 162.)

31 This is new. The object of the act is to limit the amount of benefit to be assured to any member to 1007., or an annuity of 307., or 20s. a week in case of sickness: (see ante, s. 2.) The present section seeks to prevent such limit being exceeded by persons becoming members of several societies. The penalty for obtaining money by making a false declaration is to be that provided in cases of fraud by sect. 26, namely, double the amount so obtained. Where no money is so obtained, there must necessarily be no penalty.