§ MR. DODDS, in moving for leave to bring in a Bill to facilitate the re-vesting of Mortgaged Estates in Mortgagors, said, the measure was of a very simple character, involving no complicated details, no new principle, and no new difficulty of any kind. He should have been content to move for leave to bring in the Bill merely, without detailed explanation, but that some desire had been expressed in various quarters to know his reasons for seeking to introduce it. Those reasons were two-fold. In the first place, during his professional experience, he had repeatedly seen the great necessity of such a measure; and, in the next place, he had been strongly impressed with the success which he had observed in a similar measure in connection with the Building Societies Act of 1836. That Act established for the first time in this country benefit building societies. Owing to the present state of the law a very heavy tax was imposed on small properties, which he sought by this Bill to remove. If the Chancellor of the Exchequer had been present he had intended to appeal to him that in his Budget he would exempt the reconveyancers from the stamp duty on the ground that the whole 499 process was really only one transaction, and that therefore a second charge ought not to be made. He hoped that the Chancellor of the Exchequer would either repeal the tax, or limit it to the ordinary receipt stamp. The Bill only consisted of three clauses—one providing for the receipt adopted in the case of building societies, another that the stamp duty should be the same as on deeds of conveyance, and the third that the Bill should not extend to Scotland.
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Motion agreed to.
Bill to facilitate the re-vesting of Mortgaged Estates in Mortgagors, ordered to be brought in by Mr. DODDS, Mr. PEASE, Mr. BOLCKOW, and Mr. WREN-HOSKYNS.
Bill presented, and read the first time. [Bill 35.]