BILL INTRODUCED BY PREMIER

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 33, 2 November 1934, Page 11

BILL INTRODUCED BY PREMIER

Provision For Appointing Receiver , OPPOSITION FROM MR. , LANG By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright (Received November 2, 1.6 a.m.) s' Sydney, November 1. The Premier, Mr. B. S. B. Stevens, shortly after tabling the Commissioner’s report, obtained leave to introduce the Companies Receiver and Manager Bill providing for the appointment of the Public Trustee as receiver to take charge of the assets of the companies and hold them in the interests of those who had subscribed until methods were devised and sanctioned for their distribution.

Mr. Stevens emphasised that many difficulties had made it impracticable to invoke the Courts as the contract under which the money was subscribed to these companies was entirely novel. The debentures were not true ones and were not repayable either immediately or at any fixed date. Very heavy law costs would probably be involved in pursuing remedies. Moreover, it would, be impracticable to get meetings of debenture-holders, who were scattered throughout AustraliaThe Bill empowered the Public Trustee to work in co-operation with the Public Trustees in New Zealand and elsewhere in the Commonwealth, and its operation would come to an end either bv Act of Parliament or by proclamation. The Bill is being rushed through all stages despite fierce opposition from Mr. Lang, who claimed that the measure was un-Britlsh and that it was unprecedented invoking Parliament to do what the Courts were supposed to do.

The companies covered by the Bill ate the Investment Executive Trust, the Sterling Investments Company, the Investments Securities Association, the British National Investment Trust, the New Zealand Shareholders’ Trust. Wynwood Investments, the Pacific Exploration Companv, Farms and Farmlets, the First Mortgage Freehold Security Company of New Zealand, the Transport Mutual and General Insurance Company, V. B. Mclnnes and Company (New Zealand), Alcorn, Trower and Company, Financial Publications Limited, the Southern British National Trust, the British National Trust, V. B. Mclnnes and Company (Australia), and Mclnnes and Company Limited.