• Preamble

  WHEREAS on the eighteenth day of October, nineteen hundred and twenty, a society known as the New Zealand Branch of the British Red Cross Society and Order of St John, but sometimes also known as the New Zealand Branch of the British Red Cross and Order of St John (hereinafter referred to as the old Society), was incorporated under the provisions of the War Funds Act 1915: And whereas the old Society holds and administers certain war funds within the meaning of the said Act and also holds a capital sum of sixty thousand dollars received by the old Society from the Joint Committee in England of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John, which capital sum is not a war fund within the meaning of the War Funds Act 1915: And whereas the New Zealand Red Cross Society (hereinafter referred to as the Red Cross Society) on the twenty-second day of December, nineteen hundred and thirty-one, was duly incorporated under the provisions of the Incorporated Societies Act 1908, and the Red Cross Society was on the third day of June, nineteen hundred and thirty-two, by Proclamation of the Governor-General of the Dominion of New Zealand, recognized as the National Red Cross Organization of New Zealand for the purposes of Article 25 of the Covenant of the League of Nations: And whereas in New Zealand a Commandery has been established of the Grand Priory in the British Realm of the Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem (hereinafter referred to as the Order): And whereas for some years past the income arising from the said capital sum of sixty thousand dollars has been administered by a Joint Council of the Order and the Red Cross Society: And whereas it was intended after the incorporation of the Red Cross Society to dissolve the old Society and it is expedient so to do, but no statutory provisions are in existence for that purpose: And whereas the similarity in the names of the old Society and the Red Cross Society has resulted in inconvenience and confusion, and it is the desire of the Order and of the old Society that there shall be only one Red Cross Society in New Zealand to avoid confusion and to ensure the more efficient and economical performance of Red Cross work and activities: And whereas the objects and purposes of the Order and the Red Cross Society are to a large extent similar, and a Joint Council of the Order and the Red Cross Society was formed in the year nineteen hundred and thirty-four to co-ordinate the charitable work being carried on by the Order and the Red Cross Society with a view to the elimination of overlapping in such work and to increase the usefulness and efficiency of the same: And whereas the old Society and the Order and the Red Cross Society are desirous that all the funds and property of the old Society, whether war funds within the meaning of the War Funds Act 1915, or not, shall be transferred to the said Joint Council of the Order and the Red Cross Society upon the trusts and for the purposes upon and for which the old Society has heretofore held the same, and that upon such transfer the old Society shall be dissolved: And whereas it is desired to provide that the said sum of sixty thousand dollars and the income thereof shall be expended for the relief of soldiers, sailors, or nurses who served in the Great War in priority to other charitable purposes: And whereas the old Society and the Order and the Red Cross Society are also desirous that the said Joint Council shall be incorporated with power to hold and administer the said funds and property of the old Society and any other funds:

  The expression “sixty thousand dollars” was substituted, as from 10 July 1967, for the expression “thirty thousand pounds” pursuant to section 7(1) Decimal Currency Act 1964 (1964 No 27).

BE IT THEREFORE ENACTED by the General Assembly of New Zealand in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—