AN ILLUSTRATION OF RED TAPE.

Northern Advocate, 5 September 1913, Page 4

AN ILLUSTRATION OF RED TAPE.

From the report of the Chief Public Service Commissioner: —The Stamp Department is charged with the duty of the creation and issues of adhesive stamps, and the impressing' of documents with lettering representing values, of which the raised legend, "Stamp duty—One penny," on cheques will be familiar to most people. These impressed stamps have in some mysterious way survived. The main use of the impressed stamp is for cheques, of which approximately fourteen millions are impressed every year. It is considered that the process is quite unnecessary, and that it would be quite as effective to collect the value of stamp duty from banks in bulk, as is done in the case of duty on bank notes. I have already succeeded in inducing the Department to save between £500 and £GOO per annum on this account by having the work done by machinery at the Government Printing Office instead of continuing the slow and costly process of impressing by hand, but a further saving of £500 could easily be made. Generally, I have arrived at the conclusion that the collection of duty by impressing documents is clumsy, costly, and unnecessary.