Missions Étrangères
Ordinance 1891
2020 REVISED EDITION
This revised edition incorporates all amendments up to and including 1 December 2021 and comes into operation on 31 December 2021
An Ordinance to incorporate the Procureur in Singapore of La Société des Missions Étrangères.
[13 November 1891]
Whereas certain persons have associated themselves together for the purpose of the propagation of religion under the name of “La Société des Missions Étrangères”:
And whereas such Society has invested money in the purchase of property movable and immovable within the Colony:
And whereas the business operations of the said Society are managed in the Colony by an officer called a Procureur, the present Procureur being the Reverend Nicolas Justin Couvreur:
And whereas for the better carrying on of the financial business of the said Society it is expedient that the said Nicolas Justin Couvreur and his successors, being Procureurs of the said Society, should be incorporated:
It is hereby enacted by the Governor of the Straits Settlements, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:
Short title
1.  This Ordinance may be cited as the Missions Étrangères Ordinance 1891.
The Procureur in Singapore of La Société des Missions Étrangères to be a body corporate
2.—(1)  The said Nicolas Justin Couvreur and his successors for the time being in the office of Procureur at Singapore of “La Société des Missions Étrangères”, duly qualified as hereinafter provided, shall be a body corporate, hereinafter called the Corporation, and shall for the purposes of this Ordinance have the name of “The Procureur in Singapore of La Société des Missions Étrangères”, and by that name have perpetual succession, and shall and may have and use a corporate seal.
(2)  The said seal may from time to time be broken, changed, altered and made anew as the Corporation thinks fit.
(3)  The Corporation may acquire, purchase, take, hold and enjoy movable and immovable property of every description, and may sell, convey, assign, surrender and yield up, mortgage, demise, re‑assign, transfer or otherwise dispose of any movable and immovable property vested in the Corporation upon such terms as the Corporation thinks fit.
(4)  No person shall be deemed to be duly qualified as aforesaid unless and until he has first, with the approval of the Minister signified under his hand and seal, caused the power of attorney or other instrument constituting him such Procureur to be duly filed in the Registry of the Supreme Court at Singapore, pursuant to section 48 of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act 1886, and unless and until a notification of such filing has appeared in the Gazette.
(5)  Such notification shall be sufficient evidence of the appointment, and that the person therein named is duly qualified as by this Ordinance is required.
Use of corporate seal
3.—(1)  No deed, document or other instrument, sealed with the seal of the Corporation, shall be deemed to be duly sealed unless such seal has been affixed in the presence of the Procureur duly qualified as aforesaid, or his attorney duly authorised by a power of attorney registered under section 48 of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act 1886, and unless such deed, document or other instrument is signed by the Procureur or his attorney.
(2)  Such signing shall be sufficient evidence of the due sealing of such deed, document or other instrument.
Saving of Government rights
4.  Nothing in this Ordinance shall affect the rights of the Government.
[7/97]