PROVINCE OF CANADA STATUTES 

27 - 28 Victoria 1864 -- 1865

CHAP. IV.

An Act to impose duties on Promissory Notes and Bills of Exchange.
 
[Assented to 30th June, 1864.]
  
   
 WHEREAS it is necessary to increase the Provincial Revenue, and for that purpose to impose and provide for the collection of the duty hereinafter mentioned: Therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Assembly of Canada, enacts as follows: Preamble.
 1. Upon and in respect of every Promissory Note, Draft or Bill of Exchange, for an amount not less than one hundred dollars, made, drawn or accepted in this Province, on or after the first day of August in the present year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, there shall be levied, collected and paid to Her Majesty for the public uses of the Province, the duties hereinafter mentioned, that is to say:
Notes, Drafts and Bill for $ Duty imposed on $100 or upwards.
 On each such Promissory note, and on each such Draft or Bill of Exchange executed singly, a duty of three cents, for the first hundred dollars of the amount thereof, and a further duty of three cents for each additional hundred dollars or fraction of a hundred dollars of the amount thereof;
If executed singly.
 On each such Draft or Bill of Exchange executed in duplicate, a duty of two cents on each part for the first hundred dollars of the amount thereof, and a further duty of two cents for each additional hundred dollars or fraction of a hundred dollars of the amount thereof;
In in duplicate.
 On each such Draft or Bill of Exchange executed in more than two parts, a duty of one cent on each part for the first hundred dollars of the amount thereof and a further duty of one cent for each additional hundred dollars or fraction of a hundred dollars of the amount thereof;
If in more than two parts.
 And any interest made payable at the maturity of any Bill, draft or note, with the principal sum, shall be counted as part of the amount thereof.
If payable with interest.
 2. The duty on any such Promissory Note, Draft, Bill of Exchange or part thereof, shall be paid by affixing thereto an adhesive stamp or adhesive stamps of the kind hereinafter mentioned, to the value of such duty, upon which the signature or part of the signature of the maker or drawer, or in the case of a Draft or Bill made or drawn out of this Province of the acceptor or first indorser in this Province, or his initials, or some integral or material part of the instrument shall be written, so as (as far as may be practicable) to identify each stamp with the instrument to which it is attached, and to show that it has not before been used, and to prevent it; being thereafter used for any other instrument. Duty to be paid by affixing stamps: how to be affixed.
 3. Every bill, draft, order or instrument,--- What shall be deemed a bill of exchange or draft.
 For the payment of any sum of money by a bill or promissory note, whether such payment be required to be made to the bearer or to order,---
 Every document usually termed a letter of credit, or whereby any person is entitled to have credit with, or to receive from or draw upon any person for any sum of money;---
 And every receipt for money, given by any bank or person, which shall entitle the person paying such money or the bearer of such receipt to receive the like sum from any third person,---
 Shall be deemed a bill of exchange or draft chargeable with duty under this Act.
 4. Every bill of exchange, draft or order drawn by any officer of Her Majesty's Commissariat, or by any other officer to Her Majesty's Imperial or Provincial Service, in his official capacity, or any acceptance or endorsement by such officer on a bill of exchange drawn out of Canada, or any draft of or on any Bank payable to the order of any such officer in his official capacity as aforesaid, or any note payable on demand to bearer issued by any Chartered Bank of this Province, or by any Bank issuing such note under the Act chapter fifty-five of the Consolidated Statutes of Canada, entitled: An Act respecting Banks and freedom of Banking, shall be free from duty under this Act,

Bills, &c.,&c.,draws by or on Officers of Government to be free of duty.

Also Bank notes, cheques, post office orders and municipal debentures.

Any cheque upon any chartered Bank or Licensed Banker, or on any Savings Bank, if the same shall be payable on demand,
Any post office money order,--- and
Any municipal debenture or coupon of such debenture, shall be free of duty under this Act.
 5. The Governor in Council may from time direct stamps to be prepared for the purposes of this Act, of such kinds and bearing respectively such device as he thinks proper, and may defray the cost thereof out of any unappropriated moneys forming part of the Consolidated Revenue Fund; but the device on each stamp shall express the value thereof, that is to say, the sum at which it shall be reckoned in payment of the duties hereby imposed. Stamps to be prepared for purposes of this Act.
 6. The Minister of Finance may appoint any Postmasters, Collectors of Inland Revenue, or other officers of the Government, to be the distributors of stamps under this Act, and may authorize any other persons to purchase stamps from such distributors to sell again ;--- and the Governor in Council may fix the remuneration to be allowed to such distributors, and the discount to be made to persons so purchasing to sell again; but such discount shall in no case exceed five per cent on the value of such stamps, and shall not be allowed on any quantity less than one hundred dollars worth. How such stamps shall be distributed.
 7. The Governor in Council may make such further regulations as he may deem necessary for carrying this Act into effect, and may by any order in Council declare that any kind or class of instruments as to which doubts may arise, are or are not chargeable with any and what duty under this Act according to the true meaning thereof; and any order in Council made under this Act may be explained, amended or repealed by any other such order of later date; and any order in Council under this Act shall be published, and may be proved, in the manner provided by the Act respecting duties of Customs and the collection thereof, as to orders in Council under that Act. Governor in Council may make Regulations for carrying this Act into effect.
 8. The stamp or stamps required to pay the duty hereby imposed shall in the case of any Promissory Note, Draft or Bill of Exchange made or drawn within this Province, be affixed by the maker or drawer thereof, and in the case of any Draft or Bill of Exchange drawn out of this Province, by the acceptor thereof or the first indorser thereof in this Province; and such maker or drawer, acceptor or first indorser, failing to affix such stamp or stamps at the time of making, drawing accepting or indorsing such Note, Draft or Bill, or affixing stamps of insufficient amount, shall thereby incur the penalty hereinafter imposed, and the duty payable on such instrument, or the duty by which the stamps affixed fall short of the proper amount, shall be doubled. By whom the Stamps shall be affixed. 
 9. If any person within this Province makes, draws, accepts, indorses, signs, becomes a party to or pays any promissory note, draft or bill of exchange, chargeable with duty under this Act, before such duty (or double duty as the case may be) has been paid by affixing thereto the proper stamp or stamps, such person shall thereby incur a penalty of one hundred dollars, and except only in case of the payment of double duty as hereinafter Penalty for not affixing stamps.
mentioned, such instrument shall be invalid and of no effect in law or in equity, and the acceptance or payment or protest thereof shall be of no effect except that any subsequent party to such instrument or person paying the same, may at the time of his so paying or Instrument to be in valid.
becoming a party thereto, pay such double duty by affixing to such instrument a stamp or stamps to the amount thereof, or the amount of double the sum by which the stamps affixed fall short of the proper duty, and by writing his signature or part thereof or his initials on such stamp or stamps, to the manner and for the purposes mentioned in the second section of this Act; and such instrument shall thereby become valid, but no prior party who ought to Exception if double duty be paid.
have paid the duty thereon shall be released from the penalty by him incurred as aforesaid; and in suing for any such penalty, the fact that no part of the signature of the party charged with neglecting to affix the proper stamp or stamps is written over the stamp or stamps affixed to any instrument, shall be primâ facie evidence that such party did not affix such stamp as required by this Act.  But prior party in default not released from penalty: evidence in suit for penalty.
10. If any person willfully affixes to any promissory note; draft or bill of exchange, any stamp which has been previously affixed to any other, or used for the purpose of paying any duty under this Act or any other Act, or which has been in any way previously written upon or defaced, such person shall he guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall thereby incur a penalty of five hundred dollars. 

Affixing stamp already used to be a misdemeanor.

Penalty of $500.00.

11. The penalties herein before imposed shall be incurred in respect of each such promissory note, draft or bill of exchange, on which the duty or double duty hereby imposed is not paid as aforesaid, or to which a stamp, previously used, has been fraudulently affixed, whatever be the number of such instruments, executed, accepted, paid Penalty to be incurred for each note, &c. 
or delivered, or offences committed on the same day; and a separate penalty to the full amount shall be incurred by each person committing such offence, whatever be the number of such persons.  And by each person offending.
12. The.penalties imposed by the foregoing sections of this Act, shall be recoverable in the manner prescribed by the Interpretation Act in cases where penalties are imposed and the recovery is not otherwise provided for. Penalties how recoverable.
13. If any person forges, counterfeits or imitates or procures to be forged, counterfeited or imitated any stamp issued or authorized to be used for the purposes of this Act or by means whereof any duty hereby imposed may be paid, or any part or portion of any such stamp,-- or knowingly uses, offers, sells or exposes to sale, any such forged, counterfeited or imitated stamp,--or engraves, cuts, sinks or makes any plate, die or other thing whereby to forge, counterfeit or imitate such stamp or any part or portion thereof, except by permission of the Minister of Finance or of some Officer or persons who, under an Order in Council in that behalf, may lawfully grant such permission -- or has possession of any such plate, die or other thing, without such permission,-- or, without such permission uses or has possession of any such plate, die or thing lawfully engraved, cut or made, or tears off or removes from any instrument, on which a duty is payable under this Act, any stamp by which such duty has been wholly or in part paid,-- or removes from any such stamp any writing or mark indicating that it has been used for or towards the payment of any such duty,-- such person shall be guilty of felony and shall on conviction be liable to be imprisoned in the Provincial Penitentiary for any term not exceeding twenty-one years; and  Forging Stamps or engraving plates, using forged stamps, &c., &c., to be felony.
every such offence shall be forgery within the meaning and purview of chapter ninety four of the Consolidated Statutes of Canada, intituled: An Act respecting Forgery, and all the a provisions of that Act shall apply to every such offence, and to principals in the second degree and accessories, as if such offence were expressly mentioned in the said Act. Such offence to be forgery under Cap. 94 of Con. Stat. of Canada.
14. The duties imposed by this Act shall be duties within the meaning and purview of chapter sixteen of the Consolidated Statutes of Canada, intituled: An Act respecting the collection and management of the Revenue, the auditing of Public Accounts and the liability of Public Accountants, and the proceeds of the said duties shall form part of the Consolidated Revenue Fund of this Province. Duties hereby imposed to be within cap. 16 of Con. Stat. of Canada

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