National Debt (Conversion) Act 1888

9 Power of court, trustees, &c. in relation to exchange of stock. 10. Provision of funds for facilitating conversion

(1) Where any consolidated three per cent stock, or reduced three per cent stock, is standing in the name or in the books of any of the following officers, namely,—

(a) Her Majesty's Paymaster General, on behalf of the Supreme Court of Judicature in England ; or

(b) the Accountant to the Court of Session in Scotland; or

(c) the Accountant General of the Supreme Court of Judicature in Ireland;

the Lord Chancellor in the case of stock standing in the name of Her Majesty's Paymaster General, the Lord President of the Court of Session in the case of stock standing in the name of the Accountant to the Court of Session, and the Lord Chancellor of Ireland in the case of stock standing in the name of the Accountant General of the Supreme Court of Judicature in Ireland, may, with the approval in each case of the Treasury, make regulations as to the mode in which that stock or any part thereof may, with the consent of the persons to whom the dividends on the stock are for the time being payable (which consent any trustee, or other person acting iu a fiduciary character, is hereby authorised to give), or, if the dividends are being accumulated, then with the consent, in the case of England or Ireland, of the judge of the High Court to whose court the cause or matter to the credit of which the stock is standing is attached, or where the cause or matter is not so attached, then with the consent of any judge of the said Court, and with the consent, in the case of Scotland, of the Court of Session, be exchanged for an equal nominal amount of new stock. Provision may be made by such regulations that in specified classes of cases the Lord Chancellor, the Lord President of the Court of Session, or the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, as the case may be, may on behalf of the persons interested in any such stock as aforesaid consent to the exchange thereof, unless dissent from such exchange is signified within the time and in the manner fixed by the regulations.

(2) Where any consolidated three per cent stock or reduced three per cent. stock is standing in the name of the official trustees of charitable funds, an exchange thereof in pursuance of this Act shall be made on the request or with the consent of the trustees or persons acting in the administration of the charity to which that stock belongs ; Provided that the Treasury may make regulations whereby the Charity Commissioners for England and Wales may on behalf of the said trustees or persons consent to the exchange of the stock unless dissent from such exchange is signified within the time and in the manner fixed by the regulations.

(3) Subject to rules of court, any jurisdiction given by this Act to a judge of the High Court shall be exercised by a judge of the Chancery Division.

(4) In the case of stock standing in the names of—

(a) Any such officers or official trustees as aforesaid; or

(b) Any trustee or other person acting in a fiduciary character ; or

(c) Persons absent from the United Kingdom between the twelfth day of March one thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight and the twelfth day of April in the same year;

the stock may be exchanged within such extended time as may be prescribed.