The Short Title of this Act is “The Mining Companies Act 1872 Amendment Act, 1883.”

Sections twenty-eight and twenty-nine of “The Mining Companies Act, 1872,” hereinafter called “the said Act,” are hereby repealed, and in lieu thereof it is enacted as follows:—

Blank forms of transfer of shares shall not be valid. In every form of transfer there shall be written in ink the name of the transferee, whether a person or a company.

Transfers may be made on a separate document, instead of being indorsed on a scrip certificate.

Notwithstanding any transfer whatever of any shares not fully paid up, made after this Act comes into operation, the transferor thereof shall continue to be chargeable for six months after the transfer, but no longer, with any debt or liability incurred prior thereto; and, in so far as respects any such debt or liability, such transferor shall be deemed to be a contributory under the said Act in cases where it may be necessary to determine who are contributories.

Sections thirty-one and thirty-two of the said Act are hereby repealed.

Besides the parties mentioned in the thirty-fifth section of the said Act as being entitled to make application for the rectification of the register of shareholders, the following persons, that is to say, any person claiming to be a member of the company, or being a creditor of the company, and any person whose name appears on the aforesaid register, may apply in the manner provided by the section for such rectification; and the Court, on any such application, may decide on any question relating to the rectification of the register, irrespective of the manner how, or the parties between whom, the question shall arise.

Notwithstanding anything contained in the said Act, it shall not be necessary that a final call shall have been made before the capital is increased: Provided that the shares issued in pursuance of any increase of capital shall be of the same nominal value as in the case of the original issue.

The following words towards the end of section forty-five of the said Act, that is to say, “and, as the case may be, of the increased amount of the shares,” and the Fourth Schedule of the said Act are hereby repealed.

The Schedule hereto is substituted for the Fourth Schedule of the said Act; and wherever in the said Act the Fourth Schedule is mentioned the Schedule hereto shall be deemed to be the Schedule referred to.

No calls upon shares in any company shall be made after the day named at the first hearing of a petition for the winding-up thereof, unless such petition is dismissed or proceedings thereunder stayed.

Section fifty-two of the said Act is hereby repealed, and in lieu thereof it is enacted as follows:—

The amount of any call which for the time being may be unpaid upon any share in a company shall, on and from the day when the call shall be made, be deemed to be a debt due from the holder of such share to the company, and shall, from and after the day on which it is payable, be recoverable, with interest thereon and costs of suit, by the manager, describing himself in any proceeding therefor as manager of the company to whom the call shall be due, in any Court of competent jurisdiction; and payment of any number of calls due by a shareholder may be enforced in one and the same proceeding.

Notwithstanding any forfeiture whatever of any share, the holder thereof at the time of its forfeiture shall continue and be chargeable for twelve months thereafter, but no longer, with any debt or liability incurred prior to such forfeiture; and, in so far as respects any such debt or liability, the holder shall be deemed to be a contributory under the said Act in cases where it may be necessary to determine who are contributories.

The words following are hereby added to section fifty-five of the said Act: “and should the share not realize the amount of the call due, together with the costs and expenses incurred, the balance shall be recoverable by the manager as a debt due to the company.”

Where application is made to the Court for its sanction to the removal of a liquidator, the Court or a Judge thereof may require that security be given by the applicant for the due prosecution of his application, and for the payment of the liquidator’s expenses in case the application be unsuccessful; and in every case of such an application the Court or Judge may make such order as to it or him may seem fitting.

A liquidator under the said Act may at any time, whilst holding such office in respect to a company, sue for and recover all calls which have been made previously to the commencement of the winding-up of the company and shall be unpaid, in respect of any shares whatever of such company.

Subsection five of section ninety-four of the said Act is hereby repealed, and the words following shall be added to the said section and read and construed as part thereof:—

Provided that no transferor shall be liable to contribute to the assets of the company unless the Court is satisfied that the liquidator has used all reasonable means to compel the contributions required from the shareholders under the said Act.

Pending the complete realization of the property of a company, the Court or a Judge thereof may, in such cases, at such times, and upon such terms as to it or him may seem proper, authorize the liquidator of a company’s affairs to disburse moneys for reasonable expenses incurred in or about the winding-up proceedings, or for the payment of any ad interim dividend or dividends to the parties entitled thereto.

In any case where no general rule is provided under the one hundred and thirty-first section of the said Act, the Court or a Judge thereof, until such rule is provided, may make such order as shall seem fitting in respect of the payment to any party of any fees, costs, or other expenses incident to any proceedings under the said Act or this Act, all which orders shall be enforced in manner as is hereinafter provided with respect to any other orders of the said Court or Judge.

The Court or a Judge thereof shall have the same power of summoning and compelling the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents, and of punishing persons duly summoned for non-attendance, or for refusing to give evidence or produce documents, and the same means of enforcing its rules or orders, and for punishing for contempt, as is or may be possessed by the Supreme Court or any Judge thereof.

Wherever in the said Act it is made compulsory to insert any notice in one or more newspapers published in the chief town of the province where the company shall carry on operations, the said Act shall be read and construed as if such words had been omitted therefrom.

Sections fifty, fifty-five, one hundred and thirteen, and every other section wherein the word “daily” occurs in reference to a newspaper, shall be read and construed as though the word “daily” had been omitted therefrom.

Notwithstanding anything in the said Act contained, every mining company carrying on operations within the Counties of Grey and Inangahua respectively, in respect of which a memorandum has been duly lodged in the office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court for the Judicial District of Nelson, and which has thereupon been registered in such office, and to which respectively certificates of incorporation have been issued by the aforesaid Registrar at any time between the eighteenth day of April, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight, and the twenty-second day of May, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two, both last-named days inclusive, shall, in so far as the validity of the registration or incorporation of any such company may depend on compliance with the hereinbefore-recited provision of the said Act, be deemed to have been duly registered and incorporated under the said Act, notwithstanding that the said companies respectively were not carrying on operations within the limits of the judicial district wherein their registration and incorporation were respectively effected: Provided that nothing in this Act contained shall prejudicially affect, restrain, or shall be deemed in any way to authorize the restraint of, any action, suit, or other proceeding which may have been commenced before the passing of this Act in relation to any wrong or damage sustained or suffered by any person or persons or company in consequence of the erroneous registration of any such company as aforesaid.

Shares “held in trust” for a company, as provided in section twelve of the said Act, shall, as regards the sale of such shares, be first offered to the shareholders, and thereafter to the public, as provided in section forty-five of the said Act with respect to “new” shares, and no shares so held in trust shall be disposed of by the directors by private sale.