LAW REPORTS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 489, 23 April 1909, Page 9

LAW REPORTS.

COURT OF APPEAL. BEQUEST TO THE SALVATION ARMY, ' QUESTION OF'DUTY. Further argument was heard in the Court of' Appeal yesterday wjth respect to 'tho case in re AVilson (deceased) and tlio Commissioner of Stamps (appellant) versus M'Doual and others,' Mr. Hosking, K,C„ of Dunodin, appoared on behalf of the appollant, and Mr. A. S. 'Adams, of Dunedin, for tho 'respondents. /Chis was an appeal to ascertain which be/.'quost? wore exempt under the Oharitablo yGifts Duties Exemption 'Acts, By his will , ( '/tho late Mr. Samuel Wilson, of Dunedin, 'directed that £16,000 out of his estate sliould be paid to .the s treasurer of tho Salvation ■ Army organisation to bo applied in its social work in New Zealand, The Commissioner of Stamps assessed duty on tho bequest at £1800, but tho trustees of tho will appealed to -tho Supremo Court from tho assessment on'the ground that ,tho bequest by the combined oncot of the Charitahlo Gifts Duties Exemption Act, 1883, and tho Charitable Gifts Act, 1901, ,was exempt from duty. ' Mr, Justice Williams held that tho. Salvation Army's social wqrk in the Dominion Mas ■ carried on for the benefit of tho public within tho meaning of the section quoted, and that by the combined effect of tho two Acts the bequest was exempt from duty. From his , decision an appeal, was now brought. Mr.' Hosking, for the appollant, argued that 1 in the oasa of the Public Trustee versus tho. Commissioner of Stomps t]io Court of Appeal, had bound itself to tho position that the Charitable Gifts Exemption of Duties ' Act, 1901, only extended tho Act of 1883 to gifts by deed. If any gift wcro to be exempt it must be a gift to'one of the institutions mentioned in tho Aot of 188-3, Tho gift in tho present case was not to an insti-, tution within the meaning of the Act, He , submitted that the , only institutions ex- . empted were institutions whoso worlc" involved buildings, except, perhaps, establishments'for tho'promotion of science and art. 'The Salvation Army might bo an organiw- ,, fcion, but it was not'an "institution',,' within ■ the meaning of the Act. the Act of'l9ol to have oxtonded tho Act of 1883, it could not bo extended as had been suggested in tho Court below. Tho exemption created/' by the Act of 1901 must be limited to a gift for tho public benefit which was not of tho character 'mentioned in the Act of 1883; otherwise thoro would bo legislation twice over to accomplish the same end. 'Further, assuming that the Act of 1901 extended to gifts for the. social work of the Salvation ■Army, tho gift in quostiqn was not a gift to trustees for tho pericfit of tho public. The person who was authorised to giye 'a receipt for the gift was not a trusteo, and tho public, for whom the trust musit bo declared, should be the general publio, and not l tho Salvation Army, As tho gift 'was' for tho social work of tho 'Salvation Army, that meant tho social work for tho time being, and it was therefore competent for tho Army, to devote tho money to any purpose w"hich would be "social work" whether for tho pnrposo whioh tho institutions mentioned in the Act of 1883 carried out or not. So that it might be that tho Army could devoto tho wholo of tho money to some, sooial work which was not within those purpose's. A gift of that kind was not within tho exemption, or, othenviso, the Act imposing tho duty could bo given tho go-by. i ' , Mr- . ■ Adams i for tl,e respondents 1 , said that tho gift was of a capital sum to trustees for definite objects—the social work of the Army m Now Zealand—witli power to expend the capital, and with no directions to invest and apply the income The objects which woro U> bo ascertained at the dato of' testator's death comprised only those institutions or branches of tho social work actually carried on by tho Army in Now Zealand at tho ™', If that wcro nofso, then the only, additional objects woro - labour bureaux, anti-suicide bureaux, and inquiry office for missing friends, Anti-suicido bureaux wore hospitals or lunatic asylums; lab-* our bureaux were conducted through tho ordinary machinery of tho Army; whilst the inquiry office -was practically self-supporting. AH the branches of tho social work in Now Zealand were therefore within Section 2 of the Charitable Gifts Act, 1883, being either' nospitals, lunatic, orphan, or bencvplont asylums, and were exempt under that Aot It. mutt bo hold that thoy the spirit of that Act. In any case, thov were nil within tho exemption given\by the Act of 1901, which exempted all -gifts by deed or will for the benefit of tho public, and wero *? iS?? the ob J (,<?ts exempted by the Act of 1883. The expression "for the benefit of the public" must be hold to enlarge the Tffoo at C ex , em P*ion from'dutybv tho Aot ©i 1883. No other construction of the statute would give full effect to all its terms, and that must be dona unless it was found impossible. Under tho English .Finance Aot certain gifts ta societies, and 'schools wero exempt, but all othor charitahlo gifts woro table to logacv duty./ That legislation had been mado applicable to Ireland, and, in addition,, there was in Iroland general exemption from duty on ail gifts merely i Jno latter exemption had been held to bo KS- T? nd "*° ?*£ S"" 10 ™ 1 * charitable Sifts. It was submitted that the samo reaK>mng ( should bo applied to tho Now Zeatind statutes. , Decision was reserved.