The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1866.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 175, 26 September 1866, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1866.

The House of Representatives having passcd a resolution l'or Uso imposition of a stamp tax, the Government hnve caused four schedules to be drawn up of the duties they propose to levy ou all mercantile transactions, which have been laid before the Assembly, and will he considered in committee of ways and means. The first of theso contains the duties on deeds and other instruments relating to transactions between living persons; the second refers to those ou probate of wills and letters of administration ; the third contains the duties on legacies and successions to pei. sonal estates under any testamentary disposition, or upon intestacy ; and the fourth comprises those proposed to be levied ou real and personal estates. From the iirst, which more particularly affects the comm unity, it appears that the Government intend to levy a shilling tax on all agreements, minutes, or lnemoi-audums, of which the matter shall be ofthe value of £10 and upwards. Bills of exchange, drafts, promissory notes, and orders not payable on demaud likewise are dutiable, the proposal being to levy a tax of a shilling on evtry £50 up to £100, and 4d. for every £.00 or fractional part of that sum io addition. Thus on an ord.-r for £500, the drawer or the recipient, as may be agreed upon, has to place stamps to the vulue of 4s. Sd., and proportionately ou aii drafts, whether for small or large amounts, the only exceptions beiug orders payable on demand, debentures and treasury bills issued by fhe Government of New Zealand. All drafts or orders for the payment of auy sum of money to the bearer ou demand, drawn upon any person, banker, or company, are thus, it will be seen, exempted from the foregoing duties, but they do uot escape untaxed, for the} 7 are to be subjected to the duty of Id., irrespective of their money value. It also appears from the first schedule that the Government proposed to levy a duly of Is. on all bills of lading, 6d. on every receipt for the delivery of goods, nnd Id. on all receipts for the payment; of any sum of money amounting to £2 aud upwards. Marine policies of insurance, promissory notes issued by banking companies, and conveyances of land are all proposed to be heavily taxed, the former by a duty of a shilling beiug put on every £100, and for every fractional part of that snm ; on promissory notes issued by banks at the rate of £2 for every £100 of the average annual amount in circulation, as certified under the Bankers' Returns Act, and on leases according to the yearly rental ofthe lands to which they refer. The secoud schedule proposes a duty ou the probate of wills of £1 for every £LOO and the remaining two schedules show the duties proposed to be levied on heirs to estates on succession to their property to be from £1 to £10 per cent, according to the degree of consanguinity lo their predecessor, the only exemptions being made iu the case of the succession being acquired by the husband or wife of the predecessor. — W. E. Post.