The Press. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1871.

Press, Volume XVIII, Issue 2687, 9 December 1871, Page 2

The Press. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1871.

We referred the other day to the inconvenience caused by the authorities in neglecting to take steps to inform the public when any new legislation came into force. The new Stamp Duties are a case particularly in point. The Stamp Duties Amendment Act, passed during the recent session, came iuto operation on the Ist instant. It would have been easy enough surely for the Government to have had posted up in public office?, banks, &c, for the information of the people, a memorandum of the changes affected by it; and in the present case some such notice was especially desirable, as the amendments affected the duties payable on the most ordinary business transactions. Nothing of the kind was done however. When on the Ist. December the new Act came into force, it took the great majority of the public completely by surprise ; and many of our readers are no doubt unpleasantly aware from their own experience of the trouble and vexation the unexpected changes created. Of the long list of nejv duties specified in the schedules to the Act, the greater part refer to matters in which recourse is likely to be had to legal assistance. But for the benefit of any one looking out for a Government billet, we may mention that upon appointment to any place under the General Government, any Provincial Government, or any Municipal Council, he will be charged a fee of £l per cent, if the salary is from £100 to £200 a year, £2 per cent, if it is between £200 and £500, and £5 per cent, if it exceeds £500. Any future rise in salary will be accompanied by a further proportionate charge. The following also should be observed, as it refers to very everyday matters. Any " appraisement or valuation of any property, or of any interest therein, or of the annual value thereof, or of any dilapidation, or of any repairs wanted, or of the materials and labor used or to be used in any building, or of any artificer's work whatever," must bear a stamp of the value of one shilling if the amount of the appraisement or valuation does not exceed £20; of half-a-erown, if it is from £20 to £50 ; of five shillings, if it is from £50 to £100; and so on, increasing by degrees to £1 if it exceeds £500. So that any kind of estimate of the cost for a piece of work, no i matter how trifling, if given in writing, must have at least a shilling stamp. The next two points require particular I attention. The duty on cheques or orders for the payment of money is raised from a penny to twopence; while the duty on receipts is not only also raised from one penny to twopence, but is extended to receipts for the amount of £2. In future any one who draws a cheque, or takes a receipt for £2 or upwards, must see that it bears a twopenny stamp. Tbe only exception is in the case of a cheque or order dated before Ist December, (that is, before the Act came into force,) for which the penny stamp is still sufficient. We now come to the method of cancelling stamps, in which the A.ct has— as we imagine, by inadvertence—made an important change. By the original Act of 1836, an adhesive stamp was to be obliterated by writing upon it the name of the user and the date; but in 1870 a mucH more elaborate form was introduced. The sth section of the Amendment Act of that year provided that, "whenever an adhesive stamp shall be used . . . . the maker or drawer, in the case of promissory notes, or orders, or the acceptor, in the case of bills of exchange, shall i at the time of the making, or drawing, or the acceptance, as the ease may be, so sign his name as that part of his signature shall be on the left side of the stamp, and part on the right side of the stamp, and the signature shall be written continuously, and shall be so written as if the stamp were part of the paper, aud in default thereof the stamp eball

be of no avail." By a subsequent provision, instruments on which a duty of one penny was imposed—that is, cheques aud receipts—were exempted from this section. But the Act of last session raised the duty on cheques and receipts to twopence, and did not continue the special exemption. There is no eueh a thing now as an instrument on which a duty of one penny is imposed. Cheques and receipts, in common with all other instruments, come under the above section, and the mode of cancellation must be that which we have just described. As we read tbe section, tbe intention of the Act is that the signature which defaces the stamp Bhallbethe name which gives effect to the instrument ; and no it is distinctly stated in the previous clause with respect to instruments of transfer. But in the case of cheques, the bankers have found it necessary to require that the signature cancelling the stamp shall be independent of the signature as drawer of the cheque. No doubt that will be always the safest plan, as otherwise if the stamp gets accidentally rubbed off part of the signature will disappear, and the instrument be rendered entirely valueless.

The points to be chiefly remembered are, that a cheque or order to pay money must bear a two-penny stamp; that a receipt must also bear a twopenny stamp, if it is for the amount of £2; and that the user must cancel the stamp by writing his name across it, so that the signature may run right across the stamp and upon the paper on both sides. What reason there is for insisting on this particular mode of defacement, we do not know. But our readers will probably agree that, if the object is to give as much useless trouble as possible, it is very ingeniously adapted to the purpose.