Regular and Elders' Widows' Funds Act 1897
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1897 c. 11 |
| Year | 1897 |
Regular and Elders' Widows' Funds Act, 1897
(60 & 61 Vict.) CHAPTER 11.
An Act to make provision for the transfer of the Assets, Liabilities, and Management of the Regular Widows' Fund and of the Elders' Widows' Fund to the Secretary of State in Council of India, and for other purposes in relation thereto.
[3rd June 1897]
Whereas , in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty, two separate funds, commonly known and hereinafter referred to as ‘the Regular Widows' Fund’ and ‘the Elders' Widows' Fund’ respectively, were established for the benefit of the widows and families of persons employed in the home service of the East India Company, which was then considered as divided into two classes, namely, the Regular Home Establishment and the Extra Department:
And whereas upon the establishment of the Regular Widows' Fund the East India Company agreed to grant a contribution of four thousand pounds a year in aid of such fund, and in order to secure the payment thereof placed the sum of one hundred thousand pounds of East India bonds in the hands of the Trustees of such fund, and also agreed to grant a contribution of six hundred pounds a year to such fund upon the condition that so soon after the expiration of forty years from the twenty-fifth day of March one thousand eight hundred and sixteen as the capital of such fund should have attained an amount sufficient to ensure its complete efficiency, the said annual contributions of four thousand pounds and six hundred pounds should cease, and the said sum of one hundred thousand pounds of East India bonds be transferred to the East India Company:
And whereas upon the establishment of the Elders' Widows' Fund the East India Company agreed to grant a contribution of one thousand pounds a year in aid of such fund:
And whereas such annual contributions as aforesaid in aid of the said funds respectively subsequently became payable by the Secretary of State in Council of India:
And whereas for some years after the establishment of the said funds the income thereof respectively was more than sufficient to meet the current liabilities thereof, and the surplus income was accordingly invested and accumulated for the benefit of the said funds respectively:
And whereas in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four it was apprehended that by reason of reductions in the home establishment of the East India Company, consequent upon the Act of the third and fourth William the Fourth, chapter eighty-five, the said funds would prove inadequate to meet the payments provided for by the then existing regulations thereof respectively, and there-upon, at the request of the Trustees of the said funds respectively, it was resolved by the Court of Directors of the East India Company, with the sanction of the Commissioners for the Affairs of India, that the deficiency should be made good by the East India Company as compensation under the seventh section of the said Act, on condition that, if the capital of the said funds and the income thereof from interest and subscriptions should be more than sufficient to provide for the permanent charge of pensions, the excess should be appropriated, so far as it would go, to repay to the East India Company the advances which they might make under that arrangement, together with interest:
And whereas on the seventeenth day of May one thousand eight hundred and sixty the said funds were closed, and since that date no fresh subscribers have been admitted to either of the said funds:
And whereas by an Act passed in the session of the forty-first and forty-second years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter forty-seven, intituled ‘An Act to enable the Trustees of the Elders' Widows' Fund to apply the capital of the said fund in aid of income, and for other purposes in relation thereto,’ the annual contribution in aid of the Elders' Widows' Fund payable by the Secretary of State in Council of India was reduced to five hundred pounds a year as from the thirty-first day of March one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight, and the Trustees of the said fund were empowered from time to time, until the liabilities of the said fund should be satisfied or the invested capital thereof be exhausted, to raise by sale of sufficient portions of such invested capital such an amount as might be from time to time required in addition to the income of the said fund, to meet the current liabilities thereof; and it was thereby also enacted that any ultimate surplus which might remain in the hands of the Trustees of the said fund, after satisfying all the liabilities thereof, should be transferred and paid to the Secretary of State in Council of India as part of the revenues of India; and that, in case the invested capital of the said fund should be exhausted before all the liabilities thereof were satisfied, the Secretary of State in Council of India should from time to time out of the revenues of India pay to the Trustees of the said fund such sums...
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