Page:Public General Statutes 1896.djvu/302

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282
Ch. 25.
Friendly Societies Act, 1896.
59 & 60 Vict.

members on their personal security, with or without sureties as may be provided by the rules, subject to the following restrictions:

(a) a loan shall not at any time be made out of money contributed for the other purposes of the society:

(b) a member shall not be capable of holding any interest in the loan fund exceeding two hundred pounds:

(c) a society shall not make any loan, to a member on personal security beyond the amount fixed by the rules, or make any loan which together with any money owing by a member to the society, exceeds fifty pounds:

(d) a society shall not hold at any one time on deposit from its members any money beyond the amount fixed by the rules, and the amount so fixed shall not exceed two thirds of the total sums owing to the society by the members who have borrowed from the loan fund.

Holding of land.47.—(1) A registered society or branch may (if the roles thereof so provide) hold, purchase, or take on lease in the names of the trustees of the society or branch any land, and may sell, exchange, mortgage, lease, or build upop that land (with power to alter and pull down buildings and again rebuild), and a purchaser, assignee, mortgagee, or tenant shall not be bound to inquire as to the authority for any sale, exchange, mortgage, or lease by the trustees, and the receipt of the trustees shall be a discharge for all sums of money arising from or in connexion with the sale, exchange, mortgage, or lease.

(2.) A branch of a registered society need not for the purposes of this section be separately registered.

(3.) Nothing in this section shall authorise a benevolent society to hold land exceeding one acre in extent.

Copyholds.48. Where a registered society or branch is entitled in equity to any hereditaments of copyhold or customary tenure, either absolutely or by way of mortage or security, the lord of the manor of which the hereditament's are held shall, if the society or branch so requires, admit not more than three trustees of the society or branch as tenants in respect of such hereditaments, on payment of the usual fines, fees, and other dues payable on the admission of a single tenant

Vesting of property49.—(1.) All property belonging to a registered society, whether property. acquired before or after the society is registered, shall vest in the trustees for the time being of the society, for the use and benefit of the society and the members thereof, and of all persons claiming through the members according to the rules of the society.

(2.) The property of a registered branch of a society shall vest wholly or partly in the trustees for the time being of that branch or of any other branch of which that branch forms part (or, if the rules of the society so provide, in the trustees. for the time being of the society), for the use and benefit either of the members of any such branch and persons claiming through those members, or of the members of the society generally, and persons claiming through them, according to the rules of the society.