Bonds given as security under previews acts (9 Geo. IV. c. 92, and 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 14) are to be deposited with the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt (a. 16), to be delivered up on the application of not less than two trustees and three managers when required to be cancelled. Every officer trusted with the receipt or custody of money (s. 17) is to give sufficient security ; such security, when given by the treasurer, actuary, or any other officer receiving a Wary, shall be by bond, which is exempted from stamp-duty.
The direction for depositing the rules of a savings bank with the clerk of the peace (a. 18) is repealed; but two written or printed copies of them are to be transmitted (a. 19) to the barrister for his certificate, who, on approval, is to return one copy to the institution, and transmit the other to the commissioners.
Payments to the relations of intestate depositors (e. 20) are to be made to the next of kin by the law of Scotland, in the case of deposits in that country.
The act is declared (s. 21) to extend to societies for purchasing annuities as well as to savings banks, and (s. 22) to Great Britain and Ireland, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Guernsey, Jersey, and Isle of Man.
The 11 & 12 Viet. c. 133, limits the liabilities of trustees iu Ireland, except for money actually received by them and not paid over, to any suer specified by them in writing, not being less than 1001.
By the 16 & 17 Vict. c. 45, the amount of annuities granted is ex tended to 30/., but still not to be less than 4/., for one or two lives ; and they may be granted to a husband and wife, though one may already have secured an annuity to the full amount.
By the 19 & 20 Vict. c. 41, the shipping-offices for saving are coneti taited branch savings banks, and the Board of Trade is empowered to make regulations for the investment and withdrawal of deposits.
Rules framed in agreement with the statutes have been issued by the commissioners fur the reduction of the national debt. These rules provide, among other things, that no person being a trustee, treasurer, or manager of the society, shall derive any emolument, direct or indirect, from its funds; that the treasurer, and the paid officers of the society, shall give security for the faithful execution of their trust; that the age of the party, or nominee, upon whose life the aunuity is contracted, must not be under fifteen years; that no one individual can possess, or be entitled to, an annuity, or annuities, amounting altogether to more than 301., and that no annuity of lees than 41. can
be contracted for ; that minors may purchase annuities. The annuities are parable half-yearly, on the 5th of January and 5th of July, or on the Zal, of April and Inth of October. If any person wishes to have an annuity payable quarterly, that object may be accomplished by purchasing one half payable in January and July, and the other half payable in April and October. Upon the death of the person on whose life the annuity depends, a sum equal to one-fourth part of the annuity, beyond all unpaid arrears, will be payable to the person or persons entitled to such annuity, or to their executors or administrators, if claimed within two years. Those annuities are not transferable, unless the purchaser becomes bankrupt or insolvent, when the annuity becomes the property of the creditors, and will be repurchased, at a fair valuation, by the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt, if the purchaser of an annuity should be unable to continue the payment of his instalments, lie may at any time, on giving three months; notice, receive back the whole of the money he has paid, but without interest ; or he may have an immediate or deferred anunity granted, according to the amount of money paid. If the purchaser of a deferred life annuity should die before the time arrives at which the annuity would have commenced, the whole of the money actually con tributed, but not with interest, will be returned to his family without any deduction. If a person who Ines contracted for, or is entitled to, an annuity, becomes insane, or is otherwise rendered incapable of acting, such weekly sum will be paid to his friends for maintenance and medical attendance as the managers shined think reasonable, or any such other payments may be made as the urgency of the case may require, out of the sums standing in the name of the party. Any frauds that may be committed by means of misstatements and false ceitificatee will render void the annuity, and subject the parties offending to other and severe penalties. The rules of societies formed for carrying into effect the purposes of this Act must be signed by trustees, certified by the barrister appointed for the purpose, and enrolled with the clerk of the peace for the county or division in the manner already described with regard to the rules of savings banks.