His Lordship—I quite agree with the hint thrown out by the Crown Advocate. It hag been borne' in upon me for some time past that there are a large number of people here connected with limited companies who do not take the trouble to read the ordinances applying to their companies and find out what they are required to dv. The result is that for several years we have had a continuous series ° of applications in this Court. asking for relief. As far as I am aware, no suggestion has ever been made that anybody has been harmed by that relief being granted, but it is an unsatisfactory state of affairs that opportunity should have been given, at the request of many pecos ple here, for the formation of limited companies in China under British law and, having got that opportunity, thes¢ companies should have been formed and apparently no attention paid in a large number of instances to the legal requirements attached to such companies. I am not the the only Judge who hag had to comment upon these applications in this way. The penalties attaching to these breaches are really very heavy—I believe liquidators are responsible to the tune of $500 per day, and in this: case there are breaches respect to three statements which should have been filed. I am certainly not going to refuse this application, since the liquidators have put forward a satisfactory explanation and there are but few shareholders, in fact they themselves are the shareholders. But I do want to call attention again to the necessity for those connected with British companies in China observing the requirements of the Ordinances. They are not difficult to find out. Those who may come hereafter to apply for relief must not be surprised if other steps are taken than those I take in this case. I shall grant an extension of 14 days. and order the liquidators to pay costs. It would be wrong in such a case to make the general body of creditors pay the costs when' the liquidators, through not having carried out their duties, have to come here and apply for relief.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.