THEIR OWN LAWYERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 134, 8 June 1926, Page 10

THEIR OWN LAWYERS.

LOAN COMPANY FINED.

CBy Telegraph.—Special to "Star.")

STRATFORD, this day.

The first case of its kind to occur in Taranaki was heard in the local Court when the Stratford Loan Deposit Company was proceeded against by the Law Society on n charge that, not bein<* holders of » lund broker's license, or being on the mli I barristers and solid tors, they did iiunsact for reward certain business under the Act, to wit, a discharge of memorandum of mortgage. Mr. Weston, who appeared for the Law Society, alleged that the company had done a good deal of this class business and had previously been warned. This was not an isolated case.

Mr. Weir (for defendants) said he could give an assurance that the company would not do this class of business in the future. The company was a lending one, and the transactions related purely to their own mortgages. On the back of a form the whole of the particulars of discharge were entered, all that remained to be done being insertion of a date and the amount. There had been nothing underhand about it, the statement being sent openly to the solicitor, The magistrate said that the object of legislation was not only to ensure certain people should do certain business, hut to protect the public lest some mistake should be made. An expensive tangle could ariEe from a mortgage being improperly prepared and registered. He inflicted a nominal fine of £2 and costs £1 14/. Other charges arising out of tlie came circumstances were withdrawn.