S.I. No. 153/1952:

DUNDALK GAS ORDER, 1952.

DUNDALK GAS ORDER, 1952.

I, SEAN F. LEMASS, Minister for Industry and Commerce, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 10 of the Gas Regulation Act, 1920, and of every and any other power me in this behalf enabling, hereby order as follows :--

1.--(1) This Order may be cited as the Dundalk Gas Order, 1952.

(2) This Order shall come into operation on the 9th day of June, 1952.

2. The Interpretation Act, 1937 (No. 38 of 1937), applies to this Order.

3.--(1) In this Order--

the expression " the Act " means the Dundalk Gas Company's Act, 1887 ;

the expression " the limits of the Act " means the limits specified in Article 5 of this Order.

(2) Every word or expression to which a special meaning is assigned in the Act (except the expression " the limits of the Act ") or in the Gas and Waterworks Facilities Act, 1870, or in the Gas Regulation Act, 1920, has, save where the context otherwise requires, the same meaning in this Order.

4. All costs, charges and expenses of and incidental to the applying for and preparing and obtaining of this Order and otherwise in relation thereto shall be paid by the Company as part of the expenses of the undertaking.

5. In lieu of the limits prescribed by section 4 of the Act, the limits of the Act shall be and include the area for the time being of the urban district of Dundalk and any places adjacent thereto situate within a radius of three miles measured from the centre of the market square in the urban district of Dundalk.

6. The capital of the Company shall be £50,000 divided as follows, that is to say : £16,500 (consisting of 660 old shares (A), £5,500 consisting of 220 old shares (B)), £8,000 (consisting of 320 additional ordinary shares) and £20,000 to be raised in the manner hereinafter mentioned.

7. The Company may raise the said capital of £20,000 (in this Order referred to as the new capital) by the creation and issue of new stock or shares (other than terminable loans or debenture stock) and the Company may create and issue such new stock or shares either wholly or partially as ordinary stock or shares or wholly or partially as preference stock or shares as it thinks fit and notwithstanding anything contained in the Companies Clauses Act, 1863, or in any other Act, any such preference stock or shares may bear such rate of dividend and confer such priorities and privileges as to payment of dividend or repayment of capital over any other stock or shares or class of stock or shares of the Company as the Directors of the Company determine at the time or times of the creation or issue thereof and the Company shall limit the dividend payable upon such ordinary or preference stock or shares to a rate not exceeding £7 per cent. per annum, but nothing herein contained shall affect the right of the Company to issue at its discretion the said 320 ordinary shares which are unissued.

8. The Company may, in issuing any stock or shares under Article 7 of this Order or any of the additional capital referred to in section 20 of the Act, dispose of same at such times and to such persons on such terms and conditions and in such manner as the Directors of the Company think advantageous to the Company, and it may fix or not fix a reserve price in respect of any such stock or shares and sections 27 to 30 of the Act shall not apply to the issue or disposal of any such stock or shares.

9. Any stock or shares created by the Company after the commencement of this Order shall, unless otherwise provided by the terms of creation or issue, be subject or entitled (as the case may be) to the same liabilities, rights and privileges as the additional capital referred to in section 20 of the Act is subject or entitled.

10. If the Company, after having created new stock or shares to raise the new capital, determines not to issue the whole of the stock or shares created, it may cancel the unissued stock or shares and may, from time to time thereafter, create and issue new stock or shares of an aggregate amount not exceeding the amount of the stock or shares so cancelled.

11. The Company may borrow on mortgage of its undertaking any sum not exceeding in the whole £50,000 without being required to obtain the certificate referred to in section 40 of the Companies Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, and sections 37 and 40 of the Act shall apply to any such sum so borrowed.

12. The Directors of the Company may, if they think fit, in any year, before distributing any dividend to the Company's shareholders, set aside, out of the net profits of the Company, a sum not exceeding £10,000, and the sums so from time to time set aside shall be and form a redemption fund which the said Directors shall apply, in such sums and at such times and in such manner as they think fit, in redeeming the whole or any part of any loan, mortgage, debenture or debenture stock raised or created by the Company under the Act or this Order.

13. If the Company desires to raise any capital by the issue of preference stock or shares or to issue any debenture stock which it is by the Act or this Order authorised to create or issue, it may create and issue such preference stock or shares or debenture stock so as to be redeemable at such times and in such manner and on and subject to such terms and conditions as the Directors of the Company at the time or times of the creation or issue thereof shall determine and there shall be stated on each certificate of any such redeemable preference stock or shares or redeemable debenture stock the time at which and the manner in which and the terms and conditions on and subject to which such stock is to be redeemed and, for the purpose of providing money for the paying off or redeeming debenture stock, the Company may create and the Directors of the Company may issue other stock (either ordinary, preference or debenture and either redeemable or not) or, for the said purpose, the Directors of the Company may re-issue any preference or debenture stock originally created and issued in pursuance of the Act, this Order or any Act incorporated with the Act, but the creation and issue of any particular class of stock or shares pursuant to this Order shall not make the total amount of that class of stock or shares exceed the amount of that class of stock which the Company is for the time being authorised to create and issue except during the necessary interval between the creation and issue of the new stock or shares and the redemption of the old.

14. The exercise by the Company of its powers under Articles 11, 12 and 13 of this Order shall be subject to the provisions of Part III of the Companies Clauses Act, 1863, and the Company shall not, without the consent of the Minister for Industry and Commerce, pay or agree to pay interest at a higher rate than 4 per cent. per annum except that in borrowing from the bankers of the Company, the Company may agree to pay and may pay interest at the current rate charged by Irish Banks to their customers and section 36 of the Act shall not apply to any moneys borrowed by the Company after the commencement of this Order.

15. The qualification of a Director of the Company shall, in lieu of the qualification provided in section 46 of the Act, be the holding of ordinary stock or shares or preference stock or shares of the Company of the nominal value of £250 or more.

GIVEN under my Official Seal, this 9th day of June, 1952.

(Sd.) SEÁN F. LEMASS,

Minister for Industry and Commerce.