Feb. 13.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 539

any depositor or any person claiming in right of such depositor, the matter in dispute shall be referred to arbitration, and for that purpose this section shall be deemed to be a submission within the meaning of the Arbitration Act, 1908, and the reference shall be deemed to be to two arbitrators.

Interest to be allowed.

77. (1.) The interest payable to depositors shall be at a rate per annum to be from time to time determined by the Minister of Finance, not exceeding, in the case of each depositor,—

(a.) On so much of his deposit as does not exceed three hundred pounds, a rate of five per centum; and

(b.) On so much thereof as exceeds three hundred pounds and does not exceed six hundred pounds, a rate of four per centum:

Provided that in the case of savings-banks under the Savings-Bank Act, 1908, and legally constituted friendly, charitable, or provident societies, and such other non-mercantile societies as the Governor from time to time by Order in Council prescribes, the aforesaid limit of six hundred pounds shall not apply.

(2.) Except in the case of the aforesaid savings-banks and societies, no interest shall be allowed to any depositor on more than six hundred pounds.

(3.) Every person to whom the aforesaid limitation of interest-bearing deposits applies shall, before opening an account in the Post-Office Savings-Bank, make and deliver to the Post officer at the office where the first deposit is made a statutory declaration in the form numbered (1) in the Third Schedule hereto, or to that effect.

(4.) Every savings-bank or other society claiming to be exempt from the aforesaid limitation of interest-bearing deposits shall, before opening an account in the Post-Office Savings-Bank, make by its trustee or other responsible officer, and deliver as aforesaid, a statutory declaration in the form numbered (2) in the Third Schedule, or to that effect.

(5.) Any such declaration shall be exempt from stamp duty, and may be made before and taken by any person who is empowered by law to take statutory declarations, or any Post officer who is authorized to receive deposits.

(6.) Every person who, in breach of any such declaration as aforesaid,—

At any time possesses or is directly or indirectly interested in interest-bearing deposits exceeding in the whole the sum of six hundred pounds, whether in his own name or the name of any other person, and whether in the same account or in different accounts,—

is liable to the punishment imposed by law on any one making a false declaration, and is also liable under this Act to a fine of not less than ten nor more than one hundred pounds, besides the forfeiture of all interest paid or payable in excess of the prescribed limit.

78. (1.) Interest shall in the case of each deposit be computed from the first day of the month next following the day on which a complete pound, either in one sum or in several sums of less amount, has been deposited, and, as to moneys withdrawn, shall cease on the first day of the month in which they are withdrawn:

Provided that when any such deposit is duly made on the first day of any month interest for that month shall be computed and allowed in respect of such deposit.

(2.) Interest shall be calculated to the thirty-first day of December in every year, and shall then be added to and become part of the principal money.

(3.) Interest shall in no case be payable on any sum less than a pound or a multiple of a pound.

79. The moneys paid into the Post Office Account under this Part of this Act, and the interest accruing thereon, or such part thereof as the Governor in Council directs, shall be from time to time invested in the manner prescribed in the Public Revenues Act, 1908, for the investment of moneys lying to the credit of the Post Office Account.

General.

80. The Postmaster-General may from time to time enter into reciprocal arrangements with any Government Savings-Bank authority either in Great Britain or in any British possession or foreign country for the transfer of sums standing to the credit of depositors in such Government Savings-bank to the Post-Office Savings-Bank in New Zealand, or from the Post-Office Savings-Bank in New Zealand to such Government Savings-bank, and may make regulations under the authority of this Act to give effect to transfers authorized in pursuance of this section.

81. The Governor in Council may from time to time make regulations for—

(a.) Superintending, inspecting, and regulating the mode of keeping the accounts of depositors in the Post-Office Savings-Bank;

(b.) Prescribing with respect to depositors’ accounts the mode of making deposits and withdrawing moneys, and the notice to be given in the case of withdrawals;

(c.) Prescribing the time for which deposit-books, deposit-slips, withdrawal notices, warrants, receipts, and all other books, forms, and documents relating to the Post-Office Savings-Bank shall be retained in the custody of the Postmaster-General, and the mode in which they shall thereafter be destroyed or otherwise disposed of;

(d.) The nomination by a depositor, not being under twenty-one years of age, of any person or persons to whom any sum or sums payable to such depositor at his decease (including any accrued interest payable to the representative of the depositor) is or are to be paid at such decease;

(e.) The revocation of such nomination, and for the payment of the specified amount to any nominee so nominated;

(f.) The payment or transfer of sums in the Post-Office Savings-Bank which belong to persons appearing to be minors or of unsound mind, or form part of the estate of any person appearing to be deceased;

(g.) Evidence being given relative to the amounts deposited or withdrawn by persons to whom pensions have been granted under the Old-age Pensions Act, 1908, or by claimants for pensions under that Act;

(h.) All other matters incidental to carrying this Part of this Act into execution.

82. (1.) An annual account of all deposits received and paid by the Post-Office Savings-Bank, and of interest paid thereon, and of the expenses incurred in carrying this Part of this Act into operation, during each year ending on the thirty-first day of December, together with a statement of the total amount due at the close of the year to all depositors in the Post-Office Savings-Bank, shall, not later than the thirty-first day of March in every