This Part of this Act shall be read together with and deemed part of the Insurance Companies’ Deposits Act, 1921–22 (hereinafter in this Part of this Act referred to as the principal Act).

For the purposes of the principal Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

Every local company which after the commencement of this Act proposes to commence in New Zealand any class of insurance business specified in the Schedule to this Act shall, before commencing that class of business, deposit with the Public Trustee in money the sum specified in that Schedule in respect of that class of business.

Subject to the provisions of this section and of section eleven of this Act, every local company which at the commencement of this Act is carrying on in New Zealand any class of insurance business specified in the Schedule to this Act shall, not later than the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and forty-one, in respect of that class of business, deposit with the Public Trustee in money the sum of one thousand pounds, together with a further sum of one thousand pounds for each complete two thousand five hundred pounds of premium income earned by the company in respect of that class of business in its last financial year ended before the first day of October, nineteen hundred and forty.

If the premium income earned by any local company in respect of any class of insurance business in any financial year after the year referred to in the last preceding subsection is such that if the deposit under that subsection had been fixed by reference thereto it would have exceeded the deposits already made by the company under this section in respect of that class of business, then in every such case the company shall, within six months after the end of that financial year, deposit with the Public Trustee in money the amount by which the deposits already made would have been so exceeded.

No company shall be required under this section to deposit in respect of any class of insurance business a greater sum than the sum specified in the Schedule to this Act in respect of that class of business.

Every local company to which this section applies shall lodge with the Public Trustee, not later than the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and forty-one, a statement setting forth in respect of each class of insurance business carried on by the company the premium income earned by the company in its last financial year ended before the first day of October, nineteen hundred and forty. Every such statement shall be verified by a statutory declaration made by a director or by the secretary of the company.

For the purposes of this section and the next three succeeding sections the term “company” means a company as defined in the principal Act, and also includes every agent of a British underwriter or of a foreign underwriter, and every person who in New Zealand acts as an underwriter.

In this section the terms “agent”, “British underwriter”, “foreign underwriter”, and “underwriter” have the meanings respectively assigned thereto by section two of the Insurance Companies’ Deposits Amendment Act, 1927.

Every company which after the commencement of this Act proposes to commence to undertake insurance business in terms of the Motor-vehicles Insurance (Third-party Risks) Act, 1928, shall, before commencing that business, deposit with the Public Trustee in money the sum of ten thousand pounds in respect of that class of business.

No notice under subsection one of section four of the Motor-vehicles Insurance (Third-party Risks) Act, 1928, shall be given by any company liable to make a deposit under this section unless that company has made the deposit.

Subject to the provisions of this section and of section eleven of this Act, every company which at the commencement of this Act is undertaking insurance business in terms of the Motor-vehicles Insurance (Third-party Risks) Act, 1928, unless it has made a deposit which is then subsisting under section fifty-three of the Finance Act, 1933 (No. 2), shall not later than the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and forty-one, in respect of that class of business, deposit with the Public Trustee in money the sum of one thousand pounds, together with a further sum of one thousand pounds for each complete two thousand five hundred pounds of premium income earned by the company in respect of that class of business in the year ended on the thirty-first day of May, nineteen hundred and forty.

If, in the case of any company to which the last preceding subsection applies, the premium income earned in any annual licensing period in respect of insurance business under the Motor-vehicles Insurance (Third-party Risks) Act, 1928, is such that if the deposit under the last preceding subsection had been fixed by reference thereto it would have exceeded the deposits already made by the company under this section, the company shall, before the thirty-first day of March next following the end of that period, deposit with the Public Trustee in money the amount by which the deposits already made would have been so exceeded. For the purposes of this section the term “annual licensing period” means the annual licensing period for motor-vehicles under the Motor-vehicles Act, 1924. Whenever any such period is greater or less than twelve months, the premium income earned by any company in that period shall for the purposes of this subsection be deemed to be reduced or increased proportionately so as to equal the premium income for twelve months as if the income had been earned at a uniform rate throughout the licensing period.

No company shall be required under this section to deposit a greater sum than ten thousand pounds, and any deposit made by a company under the provisions of section fifty-three of the Finance Act, 1933 (No. 2), and subsisting at the commencement of this Act shall be deemed to have been made under this section.

If any company to which this section relates fails to make the deposit required by subsection one hereof within the time limited in that behalf by that subsection, that company shall be deemed to have given a notice of revocation under section four of the Motor-vehicles Insurance (Third-party Risks) Act, 1928, notifying the revocation as from the thirty-first day of May, nineteen hundred and forty-one, of the existing notice of its willingness to undertake insurance business in terms of that Act.

The Registrar of Motor-vehicles appointed under the Motor-vehicles Act, 1924, shall, not later than the thirty-first day of December in every year, deliver to the Public Trustee a statement showing in respect of each company to which this section relates the amount of the premium income earned by the company in respect of insurance business under the Motor-vehicles Insurance (Third-party Risks) Act, 1928, in the annual licensing period ending in that year. The first statement under this subsection shall be delivered not later than the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and forty.

The Public Trustee shall, as to every deposit made or deemed to have been made by any company under either of the last two preceding sections, hold the same as security to meet the liabilities of that company under the Motor-vehicles Insurance (Third-party Risks) Act, 1928.

The last four preceding sections are in substitution for section fifty-three of the Finance Act, 1933 (No. 2), and that section is accordingly hereby repealed.

Subject to the provisions of this section, any company or person required under section five or section eight of this Act to make a deposit may, instead of depositing the whole of the required amount with the Public Trustee in money, deposit approved securities, as hereinafter defined, valued at not less than that amount or, if a proportion of the required amount is deposited in money, valued at not less than the amount of the balance of the deposit required.

Any company or person who has deposited approved securities under the provisions of this Part of this Act may withdraw any securities so deposited on depositing with the Public Trustee approved securities or money, or both approved securities and money, of a value equal to the value at the time when they were deposited, of the securities so withdrawn:

Provided that the total value of the securities and money remaining deposited with the Public Trustee on behalf of that company or person shall not be less than the amount required by this Part of this Act to be so deposited.

Any securities or money deposited under the last preceding subsection on the withdrawal of other securities shall be subject to the same charge or liability as the securities withdrawn.

For the purposes of this section and of the next succeeding section the term “approved securities” means bonds, debentures, or other securities issued by the Government of New Zealand or by the State Advances Corporation of New Zealand or by any Borough Council, County Council, Electric-power Board, or Harbour Board and, during the period referred to in the next succeeding subsection, such other securities as may in any particular case be approved by the Minister of Finance under the provisions of that subsection.

The Minister of Finance may in the case of any company or person approve of first mortgages of freehold lands, or any other securities specified by him, being deposited with the Public Trustee under the provisions of this section as approved securities for such period, expiring not later than two years after the termination of the present war with Germany, as the Minister shall determine, and at the end of that period the company or person shall deposit with the Public Trustee approved securities or money, or both approved securities and money, of a value equal to the value, at the time of their deposit, of the securities previously deposited under this subsection. As soon as approved securities are so deposited the securities previously deposited under this subsection may be withdrawn.

The Public Trustee shall be the sole judge of the value of approved securities for the purposes of this section and of the next succeeding section, and his decision shall be final and binding.

If the Public Trustee is satisfied that by reason of depreciation in the value of securities or other cause the value of the approved securities, together with the money, deposited by any company or person under this Part of this Act falls short of the amount required by this Part of this Act, he may by notice in writing require the company or person to deposit with the Public Trustee money or approved securities or both to a value deemed by the Public Trustee to be sufficient to bring the amount of the deposit to the value required by this Part of this Act.

A notice under this section shall not be issued until after the Public Trustee has given an opportunity to the company or person to be heard in connection with the matter.

If any company or person fails to deposit with the Public Trustee money or approved securities, or both, as required by the Public Trustee under this section, such failure shall, for the purposes of sections nine, ten, and eleven of the principal Act, be deemed to be a default in complying with a requirement of the principal Act.

Every company or person who deposits approved securities under section eleven of this Act shall be entitled to receive from time to time the income therefrom.

It is hereby declared that the provisions of section two of the Insurance Companies’ Deposits Amendment Act, 1923, shall not apply with respect to the income derived by any company from approved securities deposited under section eleven of this Act.

Except as otherwise provided in this Part of this Act, the provisions of the principal Act shall, with the necessary modifications, apply with respect to deposits made under this Part of this Act.

Every company or person required by this Part of this Act or by the principal Act to make a deposit with the Public Trustee shall, at the expiration of each financial year, prepare such statement in relation to that year, in such form, and containing such particulars as the Governor-General may from time to time by Order in Council prescribe. Any such Order in Council may prescribe different statements, forms, or particulars for different companies or persons or classes of companies or persons.

Every such statement shall be audited, and shall be printed, and, together with three printed copies thereof, shall be deposited with the Public Trustee within four months after the close of the financial year to which it relates.

The original of each statement shall be signed by the auditor, and shall also be signed in the case of a company by the principal officer of the company managing its business in New Zealand, or in the case of a person not being a company by that person.

The Public Trustee shall forward one copy of each statement received under this section to the Minister of Finance, and shall forward another copy of each statement so received to the Minister of Justice.

Every person who signs or deposits any statement required by this Part of this Act, knowing the same to be false in any particular, is liable to a fine of fifty pounds.

In this Part of this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

A petition for the winding-up of an insurance company on the ground that it is unable to pay its debts within the meaning of sections one hundred and sixty-nine and one hundred and seventy of the Companies Act, 1933, may, with the leave of the Court, be presented by the Minister.

The Minister may, by notice in writing served upon an insurance company, require it to furnish to him within such time as may be specified in the notice such explanations, information, accounts, balance-sheets, abstracts, and statements as he considers to be necessary for the purpose of determining whether the company is insolvent, or was insolvent at any date (not earlier than the close of the financial year to which the last deposited statement of the company relates) specified in the notice, and may, by the notice, require any such explanations, information, accounts, balance-sheets, abstracts, or statements to be signed by such number of the directors and by such officers of the company, and to be accompanied by such copies of documents, as may be specified in the notice, and to be certified as correct by an auditor approved by the Minister, or by an actuary so approved, or by both such an auditor and such an actuary.

If after a notice under the last preceding subsection has been served upon an insurance company, either—

the Minister may serve upon the company a notice in writing stating that he proposes to appoint one or more inspectors to investigate the affairs of the company and to report thereon in such manner as the Minister may require, and unless the company within a period of seven days from the date of the service of the notice upon it gives notice in writing to the Minister that it objects to such an appointment being made, the Minister may after the expiration of that period make such an appointment.

If the company within the said period gives notice in writing to the Minister that it objects to such an appointment being made, the Minister may apply to the Court for leave to make such an appointment, and the Court shall grant leave unless it is satisfied by the company that such an appointment cannot reasonably be required for the purpose aforesaid, and on leave being granted the Minister may make such an appointment.

Where an appointment is made under this section, the provisions of subsections three, four, and five of section one hundred and forty-two of the Companies Act, 1933, shall apply with respect to an inspector appointed under this section in like manner as they apply to an inspector appointed under that section, and any such refusal as is, or might be, made the ground of the punishment of an officer or agent of the company under the said subsection five shall also be a ground upon which the company may, on the petition of the Minister presented by leave of the Court, be wound up by the Court in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act, 1933.

The costs and expenses of and incidental to an investigation carried out by an inspector appointed under this section (in this subsection referred to as “the expenses”) shall be defrayed out of the Consolidated Fund:

Provided that—

Rules made under section two hundred and eighty-five of the Companies Act, 1933, may regulate the procedure and the practice to be followed in the case of proceedings under this Part of this Act.

In any proceedings upon a petition to wind up an insurance company presented under this Part of this Act evidence that the company was insolvent at the close of the financial year to which the last deposited statement of the company relates, or at any date specified in a notice served under subsection one of the last preceding section, shall be evidence that the company continues to be unable to pay its debts, unless the contrary is proved.