328 SECRETARIAL PRACTICE 
payment of a duty of one shilling in the £ on dividends in the 
case of companies carrying. on business in Western Australia 
only, and on profits made in Western Australia in the case of 
companies carrying on business in Western Australia and else- 
where. Insurance companies pay a duty of £1 per £100 of 
premiums. 
CANADA. 
I. THE DoMiINION COMPANIES ACTS. 
In Canada companies may be incorporated either under the 
Dominion law or under the law of the Prouince in which the 
company carries on its business. In some Provinces the law 
relating to companies is founded on the Dominion law; in others, 
on the law of England, and there are many laws founded partly on 
‘he one system and partly on the other. 
The insolvency of companies, however, is a matter exclusively 
within the jurisdiction of the Dominion Parliament. It is only 
ander the Dominion Winding-up Act, 1927, that a creditor can 
obtain a winding-up order on the ground of insolvency. Each of 
the Provinces has its own provisions for winding-up, but these 
relate only to winding-up on grounds other than insolvency. 
The principal Companies Act is No. 27 of 1927, and there is one 
amending Act of 1930. There are also separate Acts dealing 
with special classes of companies, such as Loan Companies and 
Trust Companies. 
The main features of the principal Act, No. 27 of 1927 as 
amended by the Act, 1930, resemble closely the provisions of the 
English Act of 1929. There are, however, several points peculiar 
to Canada. They are: 
5. 5. Incorporation is obtained by application for Letters 
Patent to the Secretary of State by not less than 
three persons. 
Provides for the issue of any or all of the shares of 
the capital stock of a company without any 
nominal or par value and enacts that every such 
share shall be equal to every other such share 
subject to the preferences, restrictions or other 
conditions attached to any class of shares. 
company may, subject to confirmation by 
supplementary letters patent, change its name 
by a resolution passed by a majority of at least 
two-thirds at a special general meeting called 
for the purpose. 
Provides that a company shall possess as incidental 
and ancillary to the powers set out in the 
letters patent or supplementary letters patent, 
a large number of ‘general powers.” There is, 
however, at the end of the section, authority 
to withold anv or all if the powers of so desired.