THE NEW STAMP ACT.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 530, 29 February 1876, Page 3

THE NEW STAMP ACT.

(N.Z. Times .)

The following important correspondence in reference to certain rules and regulations under the new Stamp Att has been furnished to us for publication : Wellington, 14th January, 1876. Sir, —With reference to the rules and regulations under the Stamp Fee Act, 1875, which came in force on the Ist instant, we have the honor respectfully to represent the serious inconvenience and loss that will result to legal practitioners and the public generally from the provision requiring that the numerous documents mentioned in the first schedule to the order in Council of the 24th December last, should be stamped with impressed stamps only, and that for such documents adhesive stamps should after the end of the present month be available. Several of the documents mentioned are of a class very, seldom used, and the greater number are either so short, or so frequently differ, as to make the printing of forms undesirable, whilst the liability to spoilage, so great in a solicitor’s business, would necessitate constant application to the Government for allowance, besides causing delay and unnecessary labor. We would respectfully submit that if any advantage to the Government is likely to arise from the provision in question, it will be outweighed by the inconvenience and loss to the public. We would also respectfully suggest that it would be a great convenience to the public, and a saving to the Government, if each Supreme Court office were made a depository of law court stamps. There seems to us to be a material difl> rence between the collection of duties under the Stamp Duties Act and of fees nnder the Stamp Fee Act, as in the latter case the fees are merely those charged in certain offices for work done in them; and we submit that the object of the Act would be attained by the issue of stamps to each deputy registrar, or other officer entrusted with the receiving of fees.

On any instrument being tendered to him either for filing or sealing, he would receive the usual fee, place a stamp on the instrument, and deface it with some office seal. The income hitherto derive! by the Go vernment from the fees paid in these offices

would thus not suffer by the provision for payment of commission to dealers in such stamps; and there can be no possible necessity, with the alteration above indicated, for any other depositories than the offices themselves. Moreover, the stamps would be properly obliterated by officers of the Government (and by the persons paying the fees if desirable), the officers of the Government made accountable for stamps issued to them, and the object of the Stamp Fee Act attained with little or no inconvenience to the public. We have, &c, Moorhouse & Stafford, Brandon & Quick, Izard & Bell, Hart & Buckley, Travers & Ollivieb, Buller & Lewis.

Head Office, Stamp Department, Wellington, February 9th, 1876,

Gentlemen,— Referring to your letter dated 14th ultimo, and addressed to the Minister of Justice, I am directed to inform you that in relation to the subject treated of in the first three paragraphs, namely, the inconvenience which will result from the enforced use of impressed stamps upon the documents enumerated in the first schedule to the Order in Council of the 24th December last, it has been decided that the use of impressed stamps shall be optional, and not obligatory. An Order in Council to this effect will shortly appear in the Gazette, whereupon registrars of the Supreme Court will be duly notified. As regards the second question —namely, the appointment of the registrars or deputyregistrars as depositories, I am to state that the Government is now prosecuting enquiries in this matter, and that the subject will receive its best attention.—l have, &c, R. C. Hammbrton, Secretary for Stamps. Messrs Moorhouse, Stafford, and others, Wellington.

Head Office, Stamp Department, Wellington, Feb 22hd, 1876. Gentlemen, — With reference to the coneluding paragraph of ray letter, No 100, of the 9lh instant, saying that the appointment of registrars and deputy-registrars of the Supreme Court as depositories of stamps was under consideration, I have now the honor, by direction of the Commissioner of Stamps, to inform you that their honors the Judges have again been consulted as to the advisability of such appointments, and they still hold that the change would confer no additional convenience either for the profession or the public ; moreover, the practice in England, and also, I understand, in Victoria, is opposed to the sale of stamps by officers of the high courts of law. The Commissioner therefore regrets that under these circumstances he feels himself unable to accede to your request herein.—l have, &c, E. C. Hammerton, Secretary for Stamps. Messrs Moorhouse, Stafford, and others, Solicitors, Wellington.