1928-12-20 — Page 12

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THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH,

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1928.

CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR ANNOUNCEMENTS.

HONGKONG HOTEL

MONDAY, 24th December 1928,

WEDNESDAY, 26th December 1928. MONDAY, 31st December 1928.

Christmas Eve Special Dinner Dance

(8 p.m. to 12 midnight) Boxing Night Carnival (8 p.m. to 1 a.m.) ...New Year's Eve Special Dinner Dance

(8,p.m. to 12 midnight)

REPULSE. BAY HOTEL

MONDAY, 24th December 1928. MONDAY, 31st December 1928. TUESDAY, 1st January 1929.-

MOTOR COACHES FROM REPULSE BAY HOTEL after Christmas Eve Carnival and Now Year's Eve Carnival

To Hongkong Hotel

To Peak Hotel

...1.15 a.m. ......1.15 a.M.

Evening Celebrations:

Christmas Eve Carnival (8.30 pm. to 1 a.m.) New Year's Eve Carnival (8.30 p.m. to I a.m.) Special Tiffin (Orchestra 1 p.m. to 2.30 p.m.) Tea Dance

(4.30 p.m. to 6.30 p.m.)

LATE PEAK TRAM CARS. 24th December 1928......1.00 a.m. 26th December 1928......1.00 à‚m. 31st December 1928... ...1.30 a.m.

Dinner $4.00 per person Tea Dance $1.00 per head. Tables for the above may now be reserved.

Fancy or Evening Dreas.

THE HONGKONG AND SHANGHAI HOTELS, LTD.

WAHL** EVERSHARP

AROUND THE WORLD

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ON SALE EVERYWHERE

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قنادر

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HOSPITALS

Victoria Hospital. Matilda Hospital.

CLUBS.

Hongkong Club.. Hongkong Cricket Club. Hongkong Jockey Club.

Alice Memorial Hospital. Now Tung Wah Hospital. Nursing Home, Shameen.

HOTELS.

Repulse Bay Hotel. Oriental Hotel (Canton),

OTHER BUILDINGS

Mountain Lodge. Sistors' Quarters, Matilda Hosp. Police Station, Sham Shui Po. Stubb's Road Garage. --Branksome Towers.

All systems are designed by experts, thoroughly acquainted with local conditions & requirements.

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Queen's Building...

Tel. C.1030.

STAMP DUTY PETITION.

(Continued from Page' 6.)

the plea of preventing the evasion of Dutles, even if such ovasion in fact exists, but that, in practice, there is, and can be, no substan tial evasion of Estate Dutles, Your Petitioners beg loave to deal With the other avowed object of the Bill, namely, the prevention of the evasion of Stamp Duties.

Stavip Dulics.

21. Stamp Duties. (1) That Your Fetitioners respect] fully contend that there can of course be no question of "evasion" unless there is some subsisting legal liability which is being graded.

(2) "That the Stamp Duty Ordinanco 1921, Section 29 (1) provides:

"Where the consideration, or any part of the consideration, for con- veyance on sale consists of any shares or marketable socurities, the conveyance is to be charged with ad valorem duty in respect of the value of the shares or securities.on the day of the date of such convey- apce." (3)That Heading 40 of the Schedule

to the Ordinance says:

"(1) Transfer of shares 20 cents for every $100 or part thereof of the value of the shares on the dato of stamping. Period within which the Instrument must be stamped: Before delivery by the broker. ..." (4) That in their preliminary obsor-

vations Your Petitioners have already submitted that a trang- fer of shares is not legally com- plete until the same has been registered with the Company, and that the practice of dealings in of blank in phares by means

without com- transfers, and

pleting the transfers, is of historic origin, and in well- known and well established. The stamp on the transfer is payable in respect of the complete "con veyance not in respect of any Intermediate dealings with the meru right of' ultimately calling for the completion of the trans- for by the ultimate purchaser or other party entitled,"c.g, a mort- gegee.

(5) That that this is the position re- cognised and acted upon in Eng- land is shown by the following quotation:

The transfer, in the case of a purchase on a Stock Exchange, con- tains the price payable by the ulti- mato purchaser. Where the tran- saction has passed through inter- mediate purchasers, this price may differ from that to be received by the transferor, and a note to this effect is to be found upon most) forms of transfor used by stock- brokers. Where this form of trans- for is used, the transferar is bound by custom to execute the transfer notwithstanding the difference in price)."

(Halsbury's Laws of England, Volume 27, pagé 245).·

Useful and Convenient,

(0) That Your Petitioners venture to

The Season's Loveliest

HATS

New

Millinery

AT

Whiteaways

What could be nicer than a New Hat for a Christmas Gift?

We are now showing a splendid collection of Ladies' and Children's Hats at most popular prices.

Call and Inspect.

WHITEAWAYS

assert that this practice was not CHILEAN WARSHIPS.

unknown to the Government of Hongkong as is shown by clapso 16 of the learned Attorney- General's observations in the "Objects and Reason" annexed to the original Stamp Bill 1821, which is as follows:

"Clause 20 is an attempt to dea! with the problem of blank trans fera, Lc., 4ransfers of shares execut- ed by the registered owner in which the name of the transferee is left blank. These transfers pass to Buccessive purchasers before finally completed and registered and thus many transfers cacape paying duty, The question of making all blank transfers illegal was considered but it was thought that such a prohibi- tion would interfero unduly with a common practice which has boor found to be useful and convenient Blank transfers are therefore not made illegal, but an inducement to prompt registration of transfers is offerod, or, perhaps it should be sald, a penalty is placed on late ro-; gistrations..

t.

BRITISH BUILT VESSELS READY TO PROCEED HOME:

London, Dec. 19. The first pair of six Chilean des- troyers, the Serrano and Orella, are expected to proceed to their home waters shortly, and yester- day the Mayor of Southampton presented the two vessels with their ensigns.-British Wireless.

made, was dropped in its entirely by the Government. At the same time the duty payable for "Share Contract Noto" was raised to a maximum of $10 (double of the original amount) varying with the amount of the consideration, (11) That it is therefore clear that the increased Duty on "share con- fract note" (from $5.00 to $10.00) was introduced to "compensate" the Government for the "escape" of Duties in respect of uncomplot- ed transfere. Indeed, this was officially stated to be the position by His Excellency the Oficer Administering the Government, Mr. Claud Severn, who stated in Council:"

we have! raised the rate on xhara contruct | molca, at the instance of the brokers themselves. It is an ex-i pression of their great relief in getting rid of this section" (4.4. old clauso 29). (Handard 1921, page 51), Your Petitionere gub mit that, on this ground alone, ip would be unfair for the Govern. ment to proceed with the proposed

(7) That Your Petitioners beg leave to observe, parenthetically, that they could see no appreciablo difference in effect between the "prohibition" of a practice, and a statutory enactment containing requirements which reader the continuance of such a practico

of Impossible from the point

view of everyday business transactions, and that the proposed legislation will undoubtedly have the latter effect upon the practice of Blank Transfer, which was recognised by the Government be, in tha words of the Government's Au-j thoritative spokesman, "a common | (12) practice which has been found to be useful and convenient," and jp regard to which the same spokes man expressed the Government's laudable desire not to “unduly interfere with,"

(8) That, in regard to the old clause

20, Your Petitioners desiro res pectfully to refer to the opinion of the lato Mr. A. G. Slephon thercon as expressed by him in the Legislativo, Council on the 26th April, 1921, as follows: "Hon, Mr. Stephon-Am I in order in referring to clauso 237 1 think the clause unworkable and it has been wisely abandoned,..........."

(Hansard 1021, page 51).

The Old Stamp Dill

(D) That the amount of duty payahlp on "Bharo Contract Note," which wag Introduced by clause 27 of the said old Stamp Bill, and which was entirely new to Hong- kỏng wis: $2.00 Tor all amounte up to $10,000 and $5,00 for all amounts above that. figure.

(10) That the underlying idea of the

old clause 20 desllig with Blank

chat Your. Potitioners submit

that the "Share Contract Duty! raised by the amended Bill of 1991 from $5.00 to the maximum of $10,00; is payable in respect of every solo: itile, in essence, 4) "lovy on every transfer," in the popular sense, of shares, (13) That having regard, therefore,

to the well-known system of blank! tranfer, and to the history of the Hongkong legislation. Indicate! above, Your Petitioners aubrii}} that there is, and can be, no pas sible question of evading Stamp Duties.

SATISFIED

CLIENTS!

ASK THEM

ABOUT QUR CAR SERVICE

Transfer above referred to, is the Lane, Crawford's

same as the how propóscă legis“ | Istion. The old eldust, after duo consideration of representations

The Garage with modern plant,

Don't Under-Value

.. Self

WHY

does a man insure his property for ita full replacement value yet feel satisfied with a few thousand life insurance often representing at most two or three years' income? The fire policy may become a claim, the life policy must, either by death or maturity. Are you adequately insured?

Enquire to-day

THE

MANUFACTURERS LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY

HEAD OFFICE

TORONTO, CANADA.

ARNHOLD & CO., LTD.

Agents.

French Bank Building, Hong Kong. Tel C. 1500.

Use

PURICO

THE UNEXCELLED COOKING FAT

Obtainable at

AU GROCERS & STOREKEEPERS.

Agenta:- KELLER, KEBN & CO., LTD.

18, Connaught Road, Telephone O. 312.