COMPANIES IN GENERAL

and s. 381 (2) of the Companies Act, 1929, under which in
effect such references will generally be construed as references
to the corresponding sections of the Companies Act, 1929.
It must not be forgotten that the Act is a consolidation
Act, and not a codifying Act (such as the Bills of Exchange
Act, 1882, the Partnership Act, 1890, and the Sale of Goods
Act, 1893). Large and important branches of existing
company law are practically untouched by it, whilst the law
as to debentures, apart from the matter of registration, is
only dealt with in a few isolated particulars.
Accordingly, useful though the Act is, all who are connected
with the practical working of companies will require to
supplement their knowledge of the Act by an acquaintance
with a considerable quantity of additional law, for the most
part the result of decisions of the Courts. Company law,
then, is in part statute law, and in part case law; the case
law comprising not only decisions upon the present statute
and its predecessors, but also on matters in which the statutes
play no directly material part.
The Companies Acts, whilst conferring the boon of limited
liability, at the same time restricted freedom of action to the
extent of prohibiting unregistered partnerships of more than
a certain number. Ss. 357 and 358 of the 1929 Act, reproducing
 the older law, in effect make ten the maximum
number of persons who may carry on banking business
together, and twenty the maximum number who may carry
on any other business together, without registration under
the Act, or without the sanction of a special Act of Parliament
 or a charter. Mining companies within the stannaries
are, however, excepted.
Under the Act, as under the earlier Acts, various descriptions
 of companies may be registered (see ss. 1 and 2). These
are :—
‘a) Companies limited by shares;
'b) Companies limited by guarantee, which may either
(1) have a share capital; or
(1) not have a share capital;
(c) Unlimited companies, which may either
(1) have a share capital; or
il) not have a share capital.
As regards companies limited by guarantee not having a Limited by
share capital, the companies that adopt this method of Guarantee.
formation are chiefly associations for mutual insurance. or