The Hawke's Bay Times, PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY AND THURSDAY. NAPIER, MONDAY, 31st DECEMBER, 1866.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 8, Issue 451, 31 December 1866, Page 2

The Hawke's Bay Times, PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY AND THURSDAY.

NAPIER, MONDAY, 31st DECEMBER, 1866.

“ Nullius addict us Jurare in verba magistri”

STAMP DUTIES ACT, 18CG. An advertisement in another part of this morning’s paper announces the fact that a branch of the Stamp Office will be opened in each Province at the office of the Registrar "of Deeds for the affixing of the duties stamps on deeds, and for tbs sale of adhesive stamps in quantities of not less than .£2 in value. The same advertisement notifies that retail depots of adhesive stamps will be established at the principal Post Offices in seven out of the nine provinces iu the Colony, but strangely omits the other two, Hawke’s Bay and Taranaki ; so that actually no provision whatever is made for the general public to supply themselves with stamps, in fulfilment of the terms of the Act, so far as regards the two provinces in question.

A second advertisement informs people who may be desirous of becoming licensed vendors of stamps that application for a license must be made in writing to the Hon. Commissioner of Customs, Wellington, thereby intimating at the least that the vending of stamps without such license is an illegal act.

A very nice question arises as to the result of an arrangement of so bungling a character. Is it the intention of the Government to suspend the transaction of all business in those Provinces until such time as some person may be desirous of become a licensed vendor, and has made his application and obtained bis license and stock of stamps ? Or would they insist on any person who bad a trifling matter of business to perform, as the signing of a cheque, &c., investing not less than £2 in stamps before he could do it ? If not, would they be likely to enforce the Act against those who might choose to carry on their business as usual until such time as stamps could be obtained? We certainly cannot see how they could escape from the horns of the dilemma on which their evident neglect to appoint a retailer of stamps in Hawke’s Bay and Taranaki has placed them.

We observe that to remove the inconvenience the public are thus exposed to, the publisher of the ‘Herald’ has come forward as a volunteer, and, though unlicensed, is willing to assume the responsibility and supply the need of the public until a licensed re-

tailer is appointed. This may answer the purpose desired as far as Hawke’s Bay is concerned, but it by j no means removes the blame of neglect from the General Government, as there was certainly no ground whatever for supposing that any one would be found willing to do so, and in such case business would be brought to a dead-lock, or the law disregarded.

This is, however, but a very trifling sample of the inconvenience imposed on the public by this Act. We believe that as yet very few indeed appreciate to the full extent how it will press upon them, and interfere with all the departments of their business, for it not only taxes important documents, such as deeds or. instruments, but all the petty accessories of trade, as bills of exchange, drafts, orders, promissory or other notes for the payment of money, the penalty for using such unstamped notes being ,£SO. It also includes bills of lading, agreement, policies of insurance, receipts or discharges for the payment of money, &c., &c., transactions that are of continual occurrence, and often indeed in such situations as must render the fulfilment of the conditions of the Act almost an impossible thing. We are aware that there are some who approve of the principle of the Act. We confess we are not of that number, and we believe that a short experience of its working will effect a change in the opinions of many who approve of it in theory. To our mind, the utmost that can be said in its favor is that it is better than some other kinds of indirect taxation, in that it dees not, like taxes on food, raiment, and other actual necessaries, press hardly on the very poor, but inasmuch as it fetters trade and commerce, which should be as free as the air we breathe, it is bad in principle and will prove oppressive in practice. We trust, therefore, that with all its kindred it will be banished as unworthy of our age, and the open, simple, honest, and ■ rational system of direct taxation, substituted for all the cumbersome machinery of our present miserable system. But we shall have to wait for’this until public opinion is enlisted against it, and the demandis made for a change by the popular voice; for while the taxpaying public will tamely submit to be fleeced as they are at present, it will be vain to expect our legislators to initiate a change.