83
of
the condition
spon
offered which the Bank on such withdrawal, My Lords consent to exercise
My Lords, referring to the establishment of the
Bank of New Zealand in Fiji,
are under the impression
that the power reserved
to them by the 4th section of the Hong Kong
Shanghai Bank Ordinance 1866, and they hereby
authorise the Company to establish a Branch at
Singapore.
The Secretary of State asks whether the Straits
Settlement Bill for the establishment of the Bank in
that Colony may now be proceeded with. It appears,
however, to My Lords that as the Bank derives its
powers of corporate action from the Ordinance of Hong Kong
and as that Ordinance only empowers it to establish a
Bank in Singapore with the assent of the Treasury, it will be proper, in the first instance,
to comply with the requirements of the incorporating
ordinance, and to give the Treasury authority
therein required.
As a Bank incorporated and possessing the necessary
powers under the law of one Colony, may establish
a branch in another Colony, if the general law of
the latter Colony does not forbid it, and if so,
the absence of restrictive Banking legislation in the
Straits Settlement, there would appear to be no absolute
necessity for a Straits Ordinance. If, however,
in this case the Secretary of State would prefer to obtain
the direct assent of the Settlement, there can be no
objection, but the Ordinance must, My Lords think,
recite the conditions upon which the authority of
this Board, as required by the Hong Kong Ordinance,
has been obtained, and it must in other respects
accord with the powers granted under the Hong Kong
Ordinance.
7
On
My
REIGN
me
ar