Act 1908, s. 87). To obtain this certificate the company must have

fulfilled certain statutory conditions, which are briefly these:--

(a) The company must have allotted shares to the amount of not less than the "minimum subscription."

(b) Every director must have paid up his shares in the same proportion as the other members of the company.

(c) A statutory declaration, made by the secretary of the company or one of the directors, must have been filed with the registrar of joint stock companies, that these conditions have been complied with.

These conditions fulfilled, the company gets its certificate and starts on its business career, carrying on its business through the agency of directors, as to whose powers and duties see DIRECTORS.

Meetings.

The Companies Act as consolidated in the act of 1908, and the regulations under them, treat the directors of a company as the persons in whom the management of the company's affairs is vested. But they also contemplate the ultimate controlling power as residing in the shareholders. A controlling power of this kind can only assert itself through general meetings; and that it may have proper opportunities of doing so, every company is required to hold a general meeting, commonly called the statutory meeting, within--as fixed by the Companies Act 1900--three months from the date at which it is entitled to commence business. This first statutory meeting acquired new significance under the Companies Act of 1900 and marks an important stage in the early history of a company. Seven days before it takes place the directors are required to send round to the members a certified report informing them of the general state of the company's affairs--the number of shares allotted, cash received for them, and names and addresses of the members, the amount of preliminary expenses, the particulars of any contract to be submitted to the meeting, &c. Furnished with this report the members come to the meeting in a position to discuss and exercise an intelligent judgment upon the state and prospects of the company. Besides the statutory meeting a company must hold one general meeting at least in every calendar year, and not more than fifteen months after the holding of the last preceding general meeting (Companies (Consolidation)