PART III.

Amendments of the Minerals Exploration and Development Company Act, 1941 .

14. —(1) Subsection (1) of section 5 of the Principal Act is hereby repealed and in lieu thereof it is hereby enacted that the name of the continuing company shall be “Mianraí, Teoranta”.

(2) The continuing company shall take all steps necessary to procure that the name given to it by this section shall be registered in accordance with the Companies Acts, 1908 to 1924.

15. —(1) The Principal Act shall be construed and have effect as if, in the definition (contained in section 2 ) of the word “minerals”, the words “save that the said word does not include coal” were deleted.

(2) At any time after the passing of this Act, the continuing company may, with the approval of the Minister given after consultation with the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Agriculture, so alter its memorandum of association as to extend its objects in conformity with the amendment effected by subsection (1) of this section.

(3) Section 9 of the Companies (Consolidation) Act, 1908, shall not apply in respect of any alteration authorised by this section to be made by the continuing company in its memorandum of association, and in lieu thereof it is hereby enacted that such alteration may be made by extraordinary resolution, as defined by section 69 of the said Act, and that, in addition to complying with section 70 of the said Act, the continuing company shall, within the time mentioned in the said section 70, deliver to the registrar of companies a printed copy of the memorandum as so altered and the said registrar shall register it and certify the registration under his hand, and such certificate shall be conclusive evidence that all the requirements of the said Act, as amended by this subsection with respect to such alteration, have been complied with and thenceforth the memorandum as so altered shall be the memorandum of the continuing company.

16. —So much of subsection (1) of section 10 of the Principal Act, as amended by any order made under the Emergency Powers Acts, 1939 to 1942, as provides that sums advanced to the Company shall not exceed in the aggregate two hundred thousand pounds is hereby repealed, and in lieu thereof it is hereby enacted that those sums shall not exceed in the aggregate a sum equal to the difference between—

(a) four hundred thousands pounds, and

(b) the amount of any advances made to the dissolved company under section 9 of the Slievardagh Coalfield Development Act, 1941 (No. 8 of 1941).

17. —(1) Section 13 of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (1), that is to say:—

“(1) It shall be lawful for the Minister at any time or times to require the Company—

(a) to apply to the Minister for the grant under the Act of 1940 of a prospecting licence in respect of any particular land and, upon receiving such prospecting licence, to prospect and examine such land for the purpose of ascertaining the nature and quantity of the minerals in such land and the advisability of working such minerals, or

(b) to prospect and examine any particular land in the possession of the Company for the purpose of ascertaining the nature and quantity of the minerals in such land and the advisability of working such minerals”.

(2) Subsection (4) of section 13 of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the substitution of the words “five thousand pounds” for the words “three thousand pounds”.

18. —The Minister may, as respects any particular accounting year of the continuing company, extend the period of ninety days, mentioned in subsection (1) of section 17 of the Principal Act, to such period (not exceeding one hundred and twenty days) as he thinks fit.