The Secretary to the Treasury has forwarded me the following minute for advice:

Section 4 of the Institute of Science and Industry Act 1920 reads as follows:

4.

1. There shall be a Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry, consisting of the Director, which shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal and capable of suing and being sued.
2. All Courts, Judges and persons acting judicially shall take judicial notice of the seal of the Institute affixed to any document or notice, and shall presume that it was duly affixed.
3. The Institute shall, subject to this Act, have power to hold lands, tenements and hereditaments, goods, chattels and any other property for the purpose of and subject to this Act.
4. The Institute shall have power to acquire by gift, grant, bequest or devise, any such property for the purposes of this Act, and, in the absolute discretion of the Director, to agree to any conditions of such gift, grant, bequest or devise.
5. The powers of the Institute under the last preceding sub-section shall, subject to the regulations and the approval of the Minister, be exercised by the Director on behalf of the Institute.

1. Section 17 of the Act provides that:

The Director may charge such fees and may agree to such conditions as he thinks fit for special investigations carried out at the request of any authority, institution, association, firm or person.

2. The Director has written to the Treasury stating that, as Director of a corporation sole, capable of suing and being sued, it is his legal right to receive moneys and pay same into a Trust Fund to be operated by him in the interests of the Institute.
3. The Treasury has, hitherto, taken the receipts in question to Revenue.
4. Will the Solicitor-General please advise whether the fact that, under the Act, the Director is 'a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal' confers a legal right on the Director to require that receipts under section 17 shall be paid into a Trust Fund to be established under section 62A of the Audit Act.

Section 62A of the Audit Act 1901-1920 provides that certain specified accounts shall be Trust Accounts. It provides further that the Treasurer may establish additional Trust Accounts and define the purposes for which they are established.

The incorporation of the Director of the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry does not confer upon him the legal right of having a Trust Account established by the Treasurer under section 62a of the Audit Act, into which the Director may pay the amounts received under section 17 of the Institute of Science and Industry Act 1920.

[Vol. 18, p. 386]