NEW COMPANYS ACT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 20 April 1934, Page 2

NEW COMPANYS ACT

MANY-OBSCURITIES TO BE MADE CLEAR An explanation of a number of points in the new Companies Act which were likely to be of interest to accountants was given by Dr. A. L. Haslam, in an address to the annual meeting of the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Society of Accountants( reports the “Press.” Dr. Haslani said that there was a great deal in the Act which would need the elucidation of law court decisions before the provisions became clear.

Dr. Haslam said that the Act was a very formidable document which very closely followed the English Act of 1929. 'though well drawn, it was comforting to the legal profession to think that decades- of litigation would be required to explain exactly what some of the clauses meant. There was a great deal that was not clear at a first reading, but it would be necessary to adopt a philosophical attitude and suspend .judgment till the points should be decided in a. court of law. The old Act had very little reference to accounts, but the new statute had very largely remedied this, although it did not go as far perhaps as many would have liked it to go. A new feature running all through the Act was a series of penalties for company officials who did not keep the prescribed records. Future acci-etions to secret reserves would appear under the new Act to be impossible. Assets and liabilities of subsidiary companies must now be set out in the bal-ance-sheet of the main company.