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responsibility in the Bearer whoever he may be. This is to convert shares into mere counters for gambling purposes and this conversion of shares is permitted without control and without notice to the public or to creditors.
The other clauses do not appear to have been wanted for any purpose hitherto and they will so far as I can see be useless in the Colony.
17.
I submit that I have shown that this Bill tends to destroy the responsibility of shareholders, and to lead to gambling, and, further, to lower the moral tone of the Colony. It tends to lessen commercial confidence in companies by permitting men of very small means to have shares in, and to influence the transactions of Companies for temporary gain. It tends to affect the stability of companies as it is well known that shares of small value are to get into the hands of persons of small means who when a crisis comes and calls are made upon the shares are utterly unable to meet them. To sue these persons entails a loss and the common remedy a forfeiture of the shares often leaves the company with a large number of its own shares on hand for which there is
776J & S 186]