H.—l6

4. But for the above rule, by which the Board have been guided, they would have excluded several items from the Schedule, under which experience has shown that very little revenue can be collected, while the means of enforcing payment of the duties is very imperfect. These remarks would apply to such items as " Appraisements," " Apprenticeships," " Appointments," "Awards," " Exemplifications." A return is appended, showing the amount of duties collected under these heads in 1874. The Board would also submit whether the duty on appointments to offices under the Government or Municipalities— whilst aIL appointments, frequently more lucrative and equally permanent, in mercantile houses and companies, banks and professions, are free from duty —does not press with unequal severity on the special class on whom it is levied. 5. The Board call special attention to one provision in the Bill, in which they recommend a departure from the law in force both here and in England. It is held that when a person brings an instrument to be stamped, it is not the duty of the Stamp Office to insist on the payment of the proper duty, but only to place on the instrument such duty as the person requires. The inducement to pay the right duty is sought in the provision by which an instrument insufficiently stamped is rendered unavailable in a court of law: thus, on the one hand, the Crown loses part of its just claim, unless necessity arises for producing the instrument in Court; and on the other, a doubt is raised as to the validity or utility of an instrument affecting private rights, which may only come to light at a remote period, and may possibly become the occasion of future litigation. The Board submit that all sound policy requires that on the one hand, in a matter of revenue, the Crown should make a distinct claim for its dues ; and on the other, that no obstacle should be incidentally placed in the way of ascertaining private rights by the operation of a law whose sole object is the collection of the public revenues. The bill has therefore been so worded that the proper duties shall always be assessed by the Stamp Office, subject to an appeal to the Supreme Court, and that an instrument stamped with the Commissioner's stamp shall be available in law whether the right duty thereon has been paid or not. G. In respect to the duties on the estates of deceased persons, the Board recommend a fundamental change in the present law. It appears on inquiring, and particularly by a return annexed hereto, that the succession, legacy, and residuary duties are evaded to an immense extent in this colony; and that, notwithstanding that a large and complicated system of registration and book-keeping has been elaborated for their collection, the main cause for this loss of revenue lies in the long time allowed to elapse before the accounts of the estates of deceased persons are wound up, and by the fluctuating nature of the population, which enables persons to realize the estates, and disappear beyond the trace of the Stamp Office. The Board are satisfied that no dues on these estates can be successfully collected unless the payment is required before the issue of administration. 7. This is the principle on which the Act of the Colony of Victoria is based, and it is incorporated into the Bill now submitted. The duties are regarded as a debt due by the deceased to the Crown, and are made payable out of the estate before all other debts or claims. The share of the duties borne by the several persons to whom the property descends is settled by the administrator in the distribution of the estate. It is worth while pointing out, in evidence of the great simplification of which the law was capable, that fifteen clauses have been sufficient to deal with a subject which occupied eighty-seven clauses of the Act of 1866. The Board recommend that probate, legacy, succession, and residuary duties be abandoned, and replaced by one duty on the estates of deceased persons. As regards the amount of this duty, it has been attempted to accommodate in one table the two principles expressed in the New Zealand and the Victorian laws. By the former, the rate of duty is made to depend on the relationship of the person to whom to the person from whom the property descends. By the latter, the rate depends solely on the amount of the property, without regard to relationship, except that widows and children pay only half duty. The Schedule submitted relieves widows, as at present, from all duty ; charges direct descendants and strangers in blood with a uniform duty nearly the same as at present, without respect to the amount of property ; and charges persons of intermediate degrees of consanguinity in proportion both to the amount of property and to relationship to the deceased. The reason of making the highest and lowest rates of duty uniform as regards amount of property is, that while direct descendants and strangers in blood can hardly be charged with heavier duties than those at present imposed, the remission of any part of those rates on smaller amounts of property would result in the sacrifice of a considerable proportion of the revenue. 11. (1.) On the second matter submitted to the Board, that of extending the use of stamps to the collection of revenue in other departments, the Board recommend the passing of a Bill, of which a draft is submitted herewith, enabling the Governor to introduce stamps into any revenue department as it may be found expedient to do so. It will probably be desirable to extend the use of stamps gradually, watching the operation in one department before applying it to another. (2.) The departments into which stamps may be usefully introduced may be divided into five classes, for each of which they recommend a distinctive set of stamps to be used. These classes are as follows: — Law Court Stamps. Comprising—The Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court, District Courts, Resident Magistrate's Courts, Petty Sessions Courts, Native Land Courts, Bankruptcy Courts, Sheriffs', Coroners'. Land and Deeds Stamps. Comprising —Land Transfer, Eegistration of Deeds, Crown Grants, Land Claimants Settlements, Lost Land Orders. Postage Stamps (at present in use). Comprising —Post Office, Telegraph.

2