remove his name from the register, or make such other order as may seem fitting, and may further make such order as to costs as may seem fit.

13. In case any member of the Society shall in consequence of the order of Court be suspended from or rendered incapable of practising as a public accountant in this Colony, such person shall, during such time as he is suspended or is incapable, cease to be a member of the Society.

14. No claim against the assets of the Society shall exist in the case of or be made by any person whose name has ceased to appear upon the register of the Society, or the executors, administrators, heirs or assigns of such person.

15. Every person whose name appears upon the register shall be entitled to style himself Registered Public Accountant (Transvaal).

16. The Council shall upon being elected to office forthwith frame rules and regulations for regulating the examinations or equivalents thereto which shall be required of applicants for registration, in pursuance of § 7 of this Ordinance.

17. The Council shall have power to do each and all of the following acts :

(a) to manage and superintend the affairs of the Society;
(b) to appoint and remove any officers and servants of
the Society, and to determine the duty, salary, and
remuneration of the same;

(c) to accept or refuse, for good cause, any application
for registration made in pursuance of this Ordinance;
(d) to hold examinations for applicants for registration,
and to grant certificates to such persons as have
satisfied the examiners in such examinations;
(e) generally to exercise all the powers of the Society,
except such powers as are expressly reserved by this
Ordinance to the Society in general meeting.

18. There shall be held once in each year a general meeting of the Society, whereat every accountant upon the register, who is not in arrear with any subscription or sum payable by him to the Society, shall be entitled to be present and to vote. The quorum

for such general meeting shall be fixed by the bye-laws.

Any question to be decided at such meeting shall be decided by a majority of the members present thereat.

The Council shall prepare, as at the 31st December in each year, an account of all moneys received and expended by the Society, and submit such account, duly audited, to the Society at such general meeting for discussion and approval. The officers of the Society shall be elected annually at this meeting.

It shall be lawful for any member or members of the Society at such meeting to move any resolution which is not inconsistent with the purposes and provisions of this Ordinance, provided that no member or members shall have the right to introduce to such meeting or submit for discussion by such meeting any act done by the Council, in pursuance of the power conferred by §§ 11, and 17, sub-sections (c) and (d) of this Ordinance.

12

19. The Provisional Council shall forthwith prepare draft bye-laws of the Society, and shall convene on due notice a special general meeting of the Society in Johannesburg, to be held not later than six months from the date of this Ordinance, for the purpose of considering and, if approved, adopting the said byelaws. The notice convening such meeting shall be sent to the registered address of each member of the Society not later than twenty-one days before the day appointed for such meeting, and shall be accompanied by a copy of the proposed bye-laws.

A majority of the members personally present at such meeting shall be sufficient to determine all matters to be decided thereat, and the non-receipt of the said notice or copy of the proposed byelaws by any member or members shall not invalidate the proceedings at the said meeting, provided that twelve members be present thereat.

20. The Society may from time to time, subject to the approval of the Lieutenant-Governor, make bye-laws for any of the following purposes, provided such bye-laws be not inconsistent with the provisions of this Ordinance

(a) for regulating the conditions and mode of admission to the register of the Society;

(b) for fixing the registration and other fees and the times for payment of the same;

(c) for regulating the time, mode and place of summoning and holding ordinary and special general meetings, and the quorum to be present thereat, and the mode of voting, and the conduct of proceedings at any such meetings, and the regulations for the adjournment thereof;

(d) for regulating the meetings of the Council and the quorum to be present thereat;

(e) for regulating the number of members of the Council, and their periodical retirement, and the mode of nomination of members of the Society for election thereto, and the mode of filling casual vacancies thereon;

(f) for regulating the service under articles of clerks of members of the Society, and the forfeiture of such articles for misconduct or other sufficient cause;

(g) for regulating the times and places for holding examinations of applicants for registration, and the subjects and the manner of conducting or holding any such examinations, and for fixing a reasonable. fee to be paid by applicants and others, and the conditions on which the examiners shall hold office, and the remuneration;

(h) for regulating the mode of election or appointment of the president and two vice-presidents of the Council; (i) and generally such bye-laws as from time to time seem to the Society requisite for the better execution of this Ordinance, and the furtherance of the objects of the Society.

Such bye-laws and regulations shall, when adopted at a general meeting of the Society, and approved by the Lieutenant-Governor, and published in the Gazette, have the force of law, and shall be binding upon all members of the Society, in so far as the same are not in conflict with the terms of this Ordinance.

21. No alteration in the bye-laws as adopted at the special general meeting referred to in § 19 shall be made save by a majority of two-thirds of the members present at a special general meeting, convened for the purposes of sanctioning such alteration. Notice of such meeting, and of the alteration or alterations to be proposed thereat, shall be sent by post to the registered address of each member of the Society at least twenty-one days before the date fixed for the meeting, but the non-receipt of such notice by any member or members shall not invalidate the proceedings thereat.

22. This Ordinance may be cited for all purposes as the Accountants' Ordinance, 1904.

PART 7.-CARRIAGE OF GOODS.

In this chapter will be found a collection of the leading cases on the liability of common carriers, in which class, of course, are included railway companies which carry goods for hire. From a perusal of these cases it will be seen that the following are the main rules governing the subject:

(1) Common carriers for hire are responsible for the value of all goods entrusted to them for carriage, and are only exempted by unavoidable accident. They are liable for even slight negligence.

(2) Common carriers may, however, limit their liability by special contract with the person entrusting goods to them for carriage. If a person signs a consignment note containing or referring to special conditions, he will be bound by such special conditions. If, before or at the time of delivery of goods to the carrier for carriage, the person so delivering goods has notice of any rules or regulations limiting the carrier's liability, he will be bound by such rules and regulations. Such notice will be implied from the delivery to such person of a note, ticket, or document clearly indicating that the liability is limited, or clearly referring to accessible rules and regulations limiting the liability.

(3) Where a railway is incorporated or made subject to a special Law or Statute, such Law or Statute in the first instance governs the liability. Thus the Central South African Railways are in the first instance governed by Ordinance No. 60, 1903, following. If the Ordinance does not apply, then the rules of the Common Law, found in the following cases, apply :

Α

LIABILITY THEFT NEGLIGENCE.-Benning was Thomas's agent to book and receive parcels to be forwarded by Thomas's post carts. box of specie was delivered by the Oriental Bank to Benning to be forwarded by post cart, but the box was stolen by Benning's servant before it could be delivered to the post cart driver. The bank sued for and recovered the value of the specie from Thomas. It was decided that, under the circumstances, there had been negligence in the care of the specie, and that Benning was liable to Thomas for the loss thereof, but

not for the costs incurred in the action brought by the bank against Thomas (Thomas vs. Benning, B. 1878, p. 16). The Court held that Benning should have taken "such reasonable care in and about the custody of the box and the delivery of it to the plaintiff's driver as would be taken by a prudent man engaged in the same business."

LIABILITY DAMAGES-VALUE.Where goods are lost by a carrier the owner suing in Cape Colony is entitled to recover the value of such goods in Cape Colony, and is not restricted to the cost price of the goods in England (Louw vs. Stewart, B. 1878, p. 87).

66

FREIGHT RATE OF PAYMENT.-The plaintiff entered into a contract with the defendant to carry goods and produce from the railway station to any place within one mile of the said station" at 2s. 6d. per ton, and at an additional rate to all places beyond that distance. Certain wool was carted by plaintiff to wool-wash establishments within one mile of the station if the distance was measured in a straight line, but more than a mile by road. It was decided that the distance must be measured along the road which the carrier must necessarily travel, and that the plaintiff was consequently entitled to the additional rate. "The very essence of the contract is the actual distance which the plaintiff has to travel (Holland vs. Commissioner of Crown Lands, B. 1877, p. 105). SALE DELIVERY AGENT. Where a vendor agrees to make delivery of the goods he has sold at a distant place, the carrier is the agent of the vendor to deliver, not of the purchaser to receive the goods (Stephen Fraser & Co. vs. Clydesdale Collieries [1903], T.H. 121).

DELIVERY OF GOODS-QUALIFIED RECEIPT. If the checker of a railway, as common carriers, adds the words "not checked" on signing a consignment note, the document, in the absence of other evidence, is not binding as a receipt for delivery of the specific number of goods therein stated (Woolfe & Co. vs. Central South African Railways [1903], T.H. 76).

RAILWAY-PASSENGERS-NEGLIGENCE.-Railway companies are not "insurers, bound to warrant the safety of the passengers in any and at all events; but they are carriers, and as such they are bound to take every reasonable precaution to secure the safe transit of the passengers by their train (Durham vs. Capetown and Wellington Railway Co., B. 1869, p. 302).

LIMITING LIABILITY-NOTICE. A carrier cannot escape from his legal obligations by issuing a public notice that he will not be responsible for loss or damage to goods carried by him. He must, in order to escape liability, show (1) that the owner of the goods saw the notice, and (2) that the owner consented to its terms. Even in the case of a special agreement with the owner of the goods that the goods are to be carried at his risk, the carrier will still be liable for gross negligence (Naylor vs. Munnik, 3 S. 187).

LIMITING LIABILITY-BILL OF LADING EXCEPTIONS. By the bills of lading certain goods shipped on a steamer were to be delivered in good order and condition, accidents and perils of the sea excepted. On transhipping the goods into lighters at the port of destination they were, by accident, and without any negligence on the part of the vessel, dropped overboard. It was decided that the case came within the exceptions to the bill of lading, and that the vessel was not liable (Kaffrarian Landing and Shipping Co. vs. Donald Currie & Co., B. 1879, p. 99). The Court held that the accident was really a peril of the sea.

LIABILITY REMUNERATION-NEGLIGENCE.-In the foregoing case the bill of lading provided for certain exceptions. But where there is no such provision, and a person undertakes the carriage of goods, he is