(1)The Commissioner may, on the application of a society registered or applying for registry, grant to the society a certificate of exemption from all or any of the provisions of this Act, in any case where he is satisfied that the society does not or will not carry on the business of effecting assurances upon human life, premiums in respect of which are received by means of collectors at a greater distance than ten miles from the registered office of the society, and where he is of opinion that the society is not one to which those provisions ought to apply.
(2)A certificate of exemption under this section shall be granted subject to the condition that the society will not employ collectors to receive premiums on policies issued by the society at a greater distance than ten miles from the registered office of the society, and, if in the case of any society to which a certificate of exemption has been so granted, the said condition is at any time not complied with, the society and any collector so employed shall be deemed to have contravened the provisions of this Act, and this Act shall be deemed as from the date of such non-compliance to have applied to the society as if no such certificate of exemption had been granted to it.
(3)The certificate shall be subject to revocation by the Commissioner, but shall remain in force until so revoked, and until notice of the revocation has been advertised in the Gazette and in some newspaper in general circulation in the neighbourhood of the registered office of the society, and also transmitted by registered letter to the society.
(4)Where at the commencement of this Act there is in force a certificate of exemption issued under section eleven of the [59 & 60 Vict. c. 26.] Collecting Societies and Industrial Assurance Companies Act, 1896, or the corresponding provision of any Act repealed by that Act, the certificate shall, after the commencement of this Act, continue in force until revoked and have effect as if it were a certificate issued under this section exempting the society from all the provisions of this Act.