300 SECRETARIAL PRACTICE 
Duties of 
Secretary. 
Register of 
Share- 
holders. 
Share- 
holders’ 
Address 
Book. 
Consolida- 
tion. 
The duties of a secretary of a statutory company are 
necessarily of the same kind as fall to the lot of secretaries of 
other companies, and need not be repeated here. In the 
case of statutory undertakings, however, such matters as 
assessments, and the continuous growth of legislative enact- 
ments (e.g. those dealing with workmen’s compensation and 
national insurance) and departmental regulations, are pro- 
bably in general more before his notice than in the case of 
many registered companies. 
There are numerous differences between a Statutory 
Company and a company under the Companies Acts, and 
the more important of these are noticed below. 
S. 9 of the Companies Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, 
requires a statutory company to keep a register of share- 
holders. The section is as follows: — 
The Company shall keep a book to be called the ‘register 
of shareholders’; and in such book shall be fairly and 
distinctly entered, from time to time, the names of 
the several corporations, and the names and additions 
of the several persons entitled to shares in the company, 
together with the number of shares to which such share- 
holders shall be respectively entitled, distinguishing 
each share by its number, and the amount of the sub- 
scriptions paid on such shares, and the surnames or 
corporate names of the said shareholders shall be placed 
in alphabetical order; and such book shall be authen- 
ticated by the common seal of the company being 
affixed thereto; and such authentication shall take place 
at the first ordinary meeting, or at the next subsequent 
meeting of the company, and so from time to time at each 
ordinary meeting of the company. 
It will be noticed that there is no right of inspection given 
of the register of shareholders; there is, however, a right to re- 
quire a copy [Mutter v. Eastern and Midlands Railway (1888), 
38 Ch. D. 92]. 
In addition, by s. 10, a ‘shareholders’ address book’ is 
required to be kept. This must contain the names in alpha- 
betical order, places of abode and descriptions of the share- 
holders, so far as known to the company, but particulars of 
their holdings are not required to be stated. It is open to 
the inspection of shareholders gratis, and copies may be 
required on payment. : 
Further, when shares have been consolidated into stock, 
pursuant to s. 61 of the Act, the company shall, by s. 63, 
‘from time to time cause the names of the several parties 
who may be interested in any such stock as aforesaid, with