§ MR. J. P. HOGAN (Tipperary Mid)I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that much inconvenience is occasioned to business men having commercial relations with the Colonies, by the practice of refusing to stamp transfer documents that have been more than 30 days in transit; and whether, in view of the fact that the Post Office cannot undertake to deliver mails from all parts of the Empire within a limit of 30 days, and that English stamped transfer forms are not purchasable at Colonial Treasuries, he will consider the advisability of substituting 42 days for 30 in the present regulation of the Inland Revenue Department on the subject?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Sir MICHAEL HICKS BEACH, Bristol, W.)Where a document, such as the hon. Member mentions, first executed in the colonies, is sent to this country, it can always be stamped here, not 30 days after the date of execution, but 30 days after its arrival in this country. The hon. Member's Question must refer to instruments first executed here by one of the parties and then sent to the colonies to be executed there by another. Such instruments ought to be stamped before they are sent out; but, even in these cases, the Commissioners of Inland Revenue have, on good cause shown, stamped the instruments without a penalty, although they were presented more than 30 days after the date of first execution.