The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1895.

Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5272, 10 December 1885, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1895.

♦— We have had some specimens of legislation as passed by our Parliament last session, which hare been causing considerable perplexity and] difference of opinion, even among the ablest legal authorities, as to their actual meaning. We may take as one notable example the Hospital and Charitable Institutions Act, OTer which nearly, erery Hospital Committee in New Zealand hare been in a fog, and some of them, after in rain endearor* ing to master the details of the Act, have had to telegraph to Sir Julius Vogel for explanation. In Napier, among the members of the Board there happened to be two gentlemen, Mr Ormond and Mr Sutton, who were present in the House when the Act was passed. Eren with that advantage, as they proceeded to dis* cuss the Act, each came to a different conclusion as to what could, would, and should be done, and as fast as the members ' got out of one difficulty, another clause was discovered which once more restored chaos. We have mentioned this Act, not with any purpose of commenting en it, but with a view of drawing special attention to another Act which was passed during last session, and which affected us more particularly as a mining centre. The Stamp Act 1882 Amendment Act 1885, passed 17th September, 1885, imposes a stamp duty on assignments or transfers of a miner's right or a consolidated miner's right, issued in pursuance of The Mines Act 1887, which are not transferable by law. A miner's right is a personal holding, authorising the holder to search for gold, and the law doe* not permit him to transfer it to any other person. The conszquence of this blunder, for blunder it must be, are of more importance than would appear at the first glance. Under the Stamp Aot of 1882 and previous Act, the.transfer of Miner's property was liable to a duty of one shilling if the ralue did not exceed £20, or tw» shillings and sixpence if not orer £50 and so on. The new Amendment A«t, by substituting the wordi "Miners' Rights" for " Miners property" brings them under the head of ordinary transfer!, the effect of which is that ths miner will now hare to pay seven and sixpence for every £60 or part of £50 for the transfer of his mining claim or water race, just the same as on real property. This is equal to an increase of taxation on mining property of 2CO per cent, or in other words when it was fire shillings before, it will be now fifteen shillings, That this wip w?« intended is <juite plajo, god in

one of those blunders occasioned doubt* less by the rush of business in the House, when members either do not, or cannot, carefully read erery Bill before it is passed.