SECRETARIAL PRACTICE

charitable purposes, law and other societies, social clubs
supported by the subscriptions of their members and not formed
for purposes of profit, and other companies of a like nature,
which, while not requiring a trading capital, desire to have the
advantages conferred by incorporation. These companies
sometimes obtain the licence of the Board of Trade to dis-
pense with the word ‘limited.’ (S. 18.) Such licence can be
revoked: and if revoked, the word ‘Limited’ will be added to
the name of the company, the company will cease to enjoy the
privileges conferred by s. 18 and, in the case of a company
the name of which contains the words ‘chamber of commerce,’
the company must change its name to a name which does
not include those words within six weeks of the revocation or
such longer period as the Board of Trade may allow. [Ss.
18 (4), (5) and 19 (3).]

The amounts guaranteed are in the nature of reserve
liability (compare s. 49) and cannot be charged [re Irish
Club Co. (1906), W.N. 127].

Companies limited by guarantee and having a share capital
are not common, since they offer no advantages over a
company limited by shares in the usual way.

Unlimited companies are also far from common, since they
furnish small attraction either to the ordinary trader or to
the ordinary investor. They do not attract ad valorem duty
on their capital.

The vast majority of registered companies being companies
limited by shares, it is not thought necessary in the following
pages to refer specially to the other classes of companies.
But it must be borne in mind that, unless the provisions of
any particular section of the Act are expressly limited to any
particular class or classes of companies, they are of general
application. Thus s. 5 of the Act (as to alteration of memo-
randum) and s. 112 of the Act (as to the annual general
meeting) apply to all the descriptions of companies which
are authorised to register; whilst s. 113 (as to the statutory
meeting) applies only to companies limited by shares and to
companies limited by guarantee which have a share capital,
and s. 103 (as to keeping a dominion register) applies only
to companies having a share capital, 7.e. to companies limited
by shares and also to guarantee companies and unlimited
companies if they have a share capital. It should also be
borne in mind that many provisions which formerly applied
only to companies limited by shares now apply also to com-
panies limited by guarantee and having a share capital,
e.0. S. 42 as to return of allotments. (See below, p. 50.)