CO885-(15-16) — Page 415

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

.885

16PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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and no more than a reasonable allowance based on the usual earnings of a vessel of this class should be claimed. There probably will be difficulty in proving the amounts of anticipated profits alleged, and a much smaller sum than £1,500 should be accepted.

Marshall Islands.

Third Voyage-The actual expenditure list, which should be capable of being properly vouched, is recoverable, and, in addition, an allowance for loss of trading."

Projected Voyage. The expenses claimed are recoverable, but they should be properly vouched. The excessive trading licence fee £450 is recoverable. The claim for disturbance of business can hardly be sustained without stronger evidence than that supplied at present.

As to the further claim for £7,500. This damage appears to be somewhat remote. The date of the contract is not given, and no notice of it was given to the German Government, but, if it was made on the faith of the existing Treaties, and has proved a loss by reason of the breach of such Treaties, some claim may not improperly be put forward.

The Right Honourable Sir Edward Grey, Bart.. M.P.,

&c.,

&c.,

&c.

We have, &c.,

JOHN L. WALTON. WM. S. ROBSON.

6542

No. 25A,

(NEW ZEALAND.)

LAW OFFICERS AND MR. F. VAUGHAN HAWKINS to COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND REVENUE,

[Estate Duty: Application of Section 20 of the Finance Act, 1894, to New Zealand.] Case.

The Commissioners of Inland Revenue request the opinion of the Law Officers and Mr. F. Vaughan Hawkins upon the question whether there is power to revoke an Order-in-Council which applied Section 20 of the Finance Act, 1894, to New Zealand,

The following sections of the Finance Act, 1894, are material to the question:- The Finance Act, 1894 (57 & 58 Vict., c. 30)--

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Section 1. In the case of every person dying after the commencement Grant of of this Part of this Act, there shall save as hereinafter expressly provided, Estate be levied and paid, upon the principal value ascertained as hereinafter Duty. provided of all property, real or personal, settled or not settled, which passes on the death of such person, a duty, called "Estate Duty," at the graduated rates hereinafter mentioned.

*

*

Section 2.-(2) Property passing on the death of the deceased when situate out of the United Kingdom shall be included only if under the law in force before the passing of this Act, legacy or succession duty is payable in respect thereof, or would be so payable but for the relationship of the person to whom it passes,

Section 20 (1) Where the Commissioners are satisfied that in a Exception British possession to which this section applies, duty is payable by reason as to of a death in respect of any property situate in such possession and passing property in on such death, they shall allow a sum equal to the amount of that duty to posses- be deducted from the Estate Duty payable in respect of that property on sions. the same death.

(2) Nothing in this Act shall be held to create a charge for Estate Duty on any property situate in a British possession, while so situate, or to authorise the Commissioners to take any proceedings in a British posses- sion for the recovery of any Estate Duty.

(3) Her Majesty the Queen may, by Order-in-Council, apply this section to any British possession where Her Majesty is satisfied that, by the law of such possession, either no duty is leviable in respect of property situate in the United Kingdom when passing on death, or that the law of such possession as respects any duty so leviable is to the like effect as the foregoing provisions of this section.

(4) Her Majesty in Council may revoke any such Order where it appears that the law of the British possession has been so altered that it would not authorise the making of an Order under this section.

Section 20 of the Finance Act, 1894, was applied to New Zealand by Order-in- Council of the 2nd February, 1895, on the assumption that one of the alternative conditions of Section 20, Subsection (3) was satisfied, viz., the condition that by New Zealand law no duty was leviable in respect of property situate in the United Kingdom when passing on death. A copy of the Order-in-Council accompanies.

In 1902, S., who was domiciled at the time of his death in New Zealand, died in London possessed of certain Colonial bonds to bearer, which were actually in London at the time of his death. The bonds were admitted by the Answer, para- graph 8, to be marketable in England without any act being done out of England, and the Crown claimed Estate Duty on the bonds under Section 1 of the Finance Act, 1894, the property being situate within the United Kingdom, and therefore not exempted by Section 2 (2), although no Legacy or Succession Duty was payable by reason of the deceased having been domiciled in New Zealand." An English Information was filed against the personal representatives of the deceased, and

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