Acts confirm

ing schemes

Sect. 60. enacted by any Act of Parliament that any such scheme or schemes so certified shall be confirmed and take effect, either with or without any alterations or modifications thereof respectively, every such Act shall be deemed a public general Act (a).

to be deemed

public Acts.

Trustees of charities to

(a).

(a) By the City of London Parochial Charities Act, 1883, s. 47, post, the report under this section must describe the proceedings of the commissioners under that Act, and have annexed to it copies of schemes approved and orders made under that Act.

61. The trustees or persons acting in the administrakeep accounts tion of every charity shall, in books to be kept by them for that purpose, regularly enter or cause to be entered full and true accounts of all money received and paid respectively on account of such charity (b), and on or before the twenty-fifth day of March in every year, or on or before such other day as shall or may be fixed and appointed for that purpose by the said Board, shall cause a statement in writing to be made of the income and revenues, whether actually paid or then due, and the actual receipts and expenditure of such charity for the year ending on the thirty-first day of December then next preceding, or on some other convenient day to be fixed and appointed for that purpose by the said Board, and also a balance-sheet containing a clear statement of the balance of such account, which statement and balance-sheet respectively shall be certified under the hand of some one or more of such trustees or persons (and audited by the auditor of such charity, if any there be); and as to every charity whose gross annual income for the time being shall not exceed thirty pounds, every such statement and balance-sheet respectively, or a duplicate or true copy thereof respectively, shall be delivered or sent by such trustees or persons free of charge to the clerk of the County Court or some one of the County Courts (if more than one) to whose jurisdiction such charity may be subject under this Act (in case such charity be subject to the jurisdiction of any County Court under this Act), or if such charity be not subject to the jurisdiction of any County Court, then to the clerk of the County Court for the district or any

one of the districts (if more than one) wherein or nearest Sect. 61. adjoining whereto such charity is established, or the property thereof (in whole or in part) is situate or administered and distributed; and as to every charity whose gross annual income for the time being shall exceed thirty pounds, every such statement and balance-sheet, or a duplicate or true copy thereof respectively (unless the said Board shall otherwise direct), shall be delivered or sent free of charge to the clerk of the peace for the county or the division of the county, or some one of the counties or divisions of counties (if more than one) in which the charity is established, or the property thereof is wholly or partially situated or administered and distributed; and every such statement and balance-sheet, or a duplicate or true copy thereof respectively, shall be kept and registered without fee or reward by the Registrar of County Courts Judgments or the clerk of such County Court, and the clerk of the peace of such county or division respectively, and shall be open to the inspection of all persons, at all seasonable hours, on payment of the sum of one shilling to the registrar or clerk for every such inspection; and any person may require and have a copy of any such statement and balance-sheet, or of any part thereof, paying therefor to such registrar or clerk after the rate of twopence for every seventy-two words or figures; and a duplicate or copy of every such statement and balance-sheet to be made according to the foregoing provision, so certified and audited as aforesaid, shall be delivered or transmitted, through the post or otherwise, free of charge, by such trustees or other persons, to the said Board, on or before the said twenty-fifth day of March in every year, or such other day as may be fixed and appointed by the said Board as aforesaid; and the said Board may from time to time by any order direct that the statement and balance-sheet, or a duplicate or true copy thereof respectively, of the accounts of any charity whose gross annual income exceeds thirty pounds, shall be delivered or sent to the clerk of the County Court in the same manner as if the income of such charity did not exceed thirty pounds; and the said Board may make and give such further and other orders and

Sect. 61. directions in relation to the delivery and publication of such

Exemptions from operation of

Act (a).

accounts, and the form thereof, as they may think fit, which directions and orders shall be obligatory on and obeyed by all such trustees and persons as aforesaid.

(a) The provisions as to the accounts of trustees are now contained in sects. 44 and 45 of the Charit. Trusts Amend. Act, 1855, post; and see note

to sect. 44.

(b) The rest of this section is repealed by sect. 44 of the Charit. Trusts Amend. Act, 1855, post.

62. This Act shall not extend to the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London, or Durham, or any college or hall in the said Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham, or to any cathedral or collegiate church, or to any building registered as a place of meeting for religious worship with the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, or Marriages in England and Wales, and bonâ fide used as a place of meeting for religious worship (b), nor shall this Act, for the period of two years from the passing thereof, extend or be in any manner applied to charities or institutions, the funds or income of which are applicable exclusively for the benefit of persons of the Roman Catholic persuasion, and which are under the superintendence or control of persons of that persuasion (c), nor shall this Act extend or be applied to the Commissioners of Queen Anne's Bounty, or to the British Museum, or to any friendly or benefit society, or savingsbank, or any institution, establishment, or society for religious or other charitable purposes, or to the auxiliary or branch associations connected therewith, wholly maintained by voluntary contributions, or any bookselling or publishing business carried on by or under the direction of any society wholly or partially exempted from this Act, so far as such business is or shall be carried on by means of voluntary contributions only, or the capital or stock of such business; and where any charity is maintained partly by voluntary subscriptions and partly by income arising from any endowment, the powers and provisions of the Act shall, with respect to such charity, extend and apply to the income from endowment only,

to the exclusion of voluntary subscriptions, and the Sect. 62. application thereof; and no donation or bequest unto or in trust for any such charity as last aforesaid, of which no special application or appropriation shall be directed or declared by the donor or testator, and which may legally be applied by the governing or managing body of such charity as income in aid of the voluntary subscriptions, shall be subject to the jurisdiction or control of the said Board, or the powers or provisions of this Act; and no portion of any such donation or bequest as last aforesaid, or of any voluntary subscription, which is now or shall or may from time to time be set apart or appropriated and invested by the governing or managing body of the charity, for the purpose of being held and applied or expended for or to some defined and specific object or purpose connected with such charity, in pursuance of any rule or resolution made or adopted by the governing or managing body of such charity, or of any donation or bequest in aid of any fund so set apart or appropriated for any such object or purpose as aforesaid, shall be subject to the jurisdiction or control of the said Board or the powers or provisions of this Act (d); and nothing in this Act shall subject the funds or property of any missionary or other similar society, or the missionaries, teachers, or officers of such society, or of any branch thereof, which funds or property shall not be within the limits of England or Wales, to the jurisdiction of the said Board: Provided always, 1878.1. €2.610. 1898.2687. that the said exemption shall not extend to any cathedral, collegiate, chapter, or other schools.

Trusts Acts.

(a) Institutions included in this section are expressly exempted from Exemptions the Charit. Trusts Amend. Act, 1855: see sects. 47 and 48 of that Act, from Charit. post. And by sect. 49 of the same Act the colleges of Eton and Winchester are expressly excepted from that and the present Act. The institutions thus exempted are also exempted from the other Charit. Trusts Acts by reason of the fact that each of those Acts is directed to be read as one with the present Act: see n. (a) to sect. 1 of this Act, ante.

Exempted charities may apply to have the benefit of the Acts extended to them either wholly or partially: Charit. Trusts Act, 1869, s. 14, post.

Sect. 62

(a), (b), (c).

Sanction of commissioners to

legal proceedings.

Property belonging partly to exempted charity.

Restrictions

as to sales, &c.

Registered places of worship.

Partial

removal of exemption.

Roman Catholic charities.

In the case of charities falling within the exemptions of this section, the consent of the Charity Commissioners to legal proceedings under sect. 17 of this Act, ante, is not required.

Thus, their consent was not required to an action for removing the minister of a building registered as a place of meeting for religious worship, and executing the trusts thereof: Glen v. Gregg, 21 Ch. D. 513.

A contrary opinion was expressed by Lord Chelmsford in the earlier case of Att.-Gen. v. Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, 21 Ch. D. 514, n. An information had been filed against two Cambridge colleges as to the proceeds of estates held under a certain will, and Lord Chelmsford said that it would be strange if this section rendered sect. 17 inapplicable, "as then a clause intended for the benefit of the colleges and universities would be turned to their disadvantage." This, however, was a mere dictum. See, further, Re Wilson's Will, 19 Beav. 594; Pease v. Pattinson, 32 Ch. D. 154; Strickland v. Weldon, 28 Ch. D. 426.

Where part of an estate belongs to a charity which is not within this section, and the residue to purposes connected with a college or other institution which is within this section, an application to the Court for purposes connected with the institution which is within the section does not require the sanction of the Charity Commissioners: Re Meyrick's Charity, 24 L. J. Ch. 669. See also note (a) to sect. 17, ante, p. 479; and Att.-Gen. v. Dean and Canons of Manchester, 18 Ch. D. 596, there cited. See also Royal Society of London v. Thompson, cited in note (d) to the present section, post.

Similarly, the restrictions on sales, mortgages, and leases imposed by sect. 29 of the Charit. Trusts Amend. Act, 1855, are not applicable in the case of institutions within this section: Governors for Relief of Poor Widows, &c. of Clergymen v. Sutton, 27 Beav. 651; Royal Society of London v. Thompson, 17 Ch. D. 407; Finnis and Young to Forbes and Pochin (No. 2), 24 Ch. D. 591.

(b) See Glen v. Gregg, 21 Ch. D. 513, cited in the last note.

A similar exemption is contained in sect. 9 of the Places of Religious Worship Registration Act, 1855. As to this, and as to the registration of places. of worship, see ante, pp. 285, 286.

Two circumstances must concur in order to bring a case within the present exemption in the first place, the building must be registered as a place of worship; in the second place, it must be bonâ fide used as such.

If either of these requirements is not satisfied, it would seem that the case does not strictly come within the exemption. In practice, however, this distinction has not been regarded.

This exemption has been substantially removed by sect. 15 of the Charit. Trusts Act, 1869, which brings places of worship within the jurisdiction of the Board, so far as relates to the appointment and removal of trustees, the vesting of real or personal estate, and the establishment of schemes: see note (a) to that section, post.

(c) The words in italics were repealed by the Stat. Law Rev. Act, 1875. The exemption of Roman Catholic charities had previously been from time to time extended by the Charit. Trusts Amend. Act, 1855, s. 47, and by 19 & 20 Vict. c. 76, 20 & 21 Vict. c. 76, and 21 & 22 Vict. c. 51, to 1st September, 1859. After that date such charities became subject to the Charit. Trusts Acts.