Endlosure 2.
OP Y.
Hon. Colonial Secretary,
399
Banking Partnerships.
When the Companies Ordinance 1865 was
originally passed section 4 provided that no company consisting of more than ten persons shall be formed for the purpose of carrying on the business of banking unless registered as a company. This was taken word for word from the Act of 1862.
The Companies Ordinance 1865 was amended by Ordinance 2 of 1866 by declaring that the business of banking should be excluded from the operation of the Ordinance.
This Amendrent was made in accordance with
the Secretary of State's instructions.
In the Secretary of State's letter of the 11th. December, 1865, to the Officer Administering the Govern- -ment of Hongkong after approving generally of the Ordinance (1 of 1865) states as follows:-
"The Lords of the Treasury however to whom "the Ordinance has been referred are of opinion that all bank- *-ing companiess that may be established at Hongkong should be "subjected to the conditions contained in the Regulations for "the incorporation of banking companies in the Colonies either "by a separate general enactment or by a special Ordinance "applicable to each case as proposed for the Hongkong and "Shanghai Banking Company in my Despatch No. 92 of the 2nd. June *last. Under these circumstances therefore it will be necessary "expressly to exclude banking companies from the operation of *the Ordinance".
Royal Instructions (XXII 5) is to the effet that the Governor is not to assent to any Ordinance establishing any banking association or amending or altering the constitu-
tion powers or privileges of any banking association.
I presume this is the regulation referred
to in the Despatch of 14th. October, 1865.
In the Straits Settlements banking companies
are