A BIG FIELD FOR REFORM.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 46, 23 February 1929, Page 8

A BIG FIELD FOR REFORM.

As time passes it provides fresh illustrations of the need for that overhaul of the relations- between the State and trade that Sir Joseph Ward has promised. Our readers will have observed the interesting case of the Fruit Control Board, which refused to permit private persons to fill an order for apples from Germany, but —so it is reported —is now exploiting that market itself. The law being what it is, Sir Joseph Ward, of course, could not intervene, but possibly he thought a lot. The whole body of law affecting these control Boards should be carefully overhauled. There is also the matter, to which attention was directed this week at meetings of chambers of commerce, of the clause in the Rural Credits Act that permits companies to guarantee loans even if their articles of association forbid it. Articles of association are at the very base of company law. They are a contract with the shareholders and a guarantee of safety to the company's creditors. Yet this Act says that for a certain important purpose this contract and guarantee may be set aside. That the law should permit such a breach of faith is monstrous. The same Act contains the usual power to the Government to make regulations. One of the things the Government may do is to waive all or any of the provisions of the Companies Act in respect to associations formed muler this new Act. Talk about lawyers driving coaches through Acts of Parliament! Parliament itself has driven afrar-a-ban,9B. .