DOOR-TO-DOOR SALES

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 35, 11 February 1935, Page 12

DOOR-TO-DOOR SALES

AUSTRALIAN NEW LAW

In its provisions for the control of sharehawking, the new Companies Bill, which has been introduced in the New South Wales Parliament, appears to go a little further than the most modern English and Australasian company law. The New Zealand Companies Act, the latest counterpart of the model English Companies Act of 1929, states: "It shall not be lawful for any person to go from house to house offering shares for subscription or purchase to the public." Cooperative companies' shares are exempt, 'and "house" does hot include an office used for business.

The.New South Wales Bill, in section 343 (1), states: "A poison shall not go from house to house or from place to place offering shares for subscription or purchase to the public or any member of the public." The section says nothing about cooperative companies, and makes no exception for business premises.

With regard to offers in writing, the New South Wales Bill follows substantially the . English and New Zealand Acts. Such offers to the public must be accompanied by . statements showing, among other things, whether the offerer is principal or agent, particulars of the incorporation of the company, its authorised and issued capital, the dividends, if any, paid during the three financial years immediately preceding the offer, the amount of debentures issued, the names and addresses of the directors, and whether the shares are quoted on a Stock Exchange, or whether permission to deal in them has been granted by a Stock Exchange. Exception is made for shares already quoted on a Stock Exchange, for. shares already allotted with a view to their being offered to the public,' and in cases where the offerer regularly does share business with the offeree. :

Penalties proposed for contravention of the section are £200, or six months' gaol or both, for a first offence, and £500 or twelve months' gaol, or both, for a-sub-sequent offence.

"Shares," for the purposes of the section, includes debentures and "units," and "unit" is described as any right or interest in a share.