APPENDIX. 24 & 25 VICT. CAP. 42. AN ACT TO CONTINUE THE DUTIES LEVIED ON COAL AND WINE BY THE CORPORATION OF LONDON. 22ND JULY, 1861. WHEREAS by an Act passed in the session holden in the fifth and sixth years of the reign of King William and Queen Mary, chapter ten, intituled "An Act for the Relief of the Orphans (a) and other Creditors of the City of London," it was enacted, amongst other things, that towards raising a fund as therein mentioned a duty of 48. per tun should be imposed upon all sorts of wines (b) whatsoever which, from and after the 4th day of June, 1694, should be imported into the port of the city of London, or the members thereof, by way of merchandise, over and above the then present duties charged or chargeable thereupon, and so proportionably for a greater or lesser quantity, which said duty should from time to time for (a) By the shutting of the Exchequer in the close of Charles the Second's reign, funds to the amount of 750,0001., consisting of orphans' monies which had been invested by the court, were wholly lost to the corporation, and the mode of paying off the orphan's claims was settled by Act of parliament 5 & 6 W. & M. c. 10, by which, besides various other charges upon the city estates, an annual sum of 2,000i. was directed to be raised from the present property of the inhabitants, and collected in each ward, but the orphan's claims having since been satisfied, the charges upon the corporate estates have been applied in various public improvements; Pulling's Laws of the City and Port of London, 114. A portion of the duties which had formerly been a part of the Orphan Fund, were continued by Act of parliament, and the fund was from time to time charged with various amounts for the purpose of making the approaches to London Bridge and effecting other public improvements. See the course of legislation with regard to these duties described in the Third Report from Select Committee on Metropolitan Local Taxation, with minutes of evidence, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 2nd May, 1861. (b) See origin and history of the duties on wines in the port of London, Pulling's Laws of the City and Port of London, p. 395, Notes. c. 76. ever be paid by the importer thereof unto the mayor, commonalty, and citizens of the city of London, hereinafter called 1 & 2 W. 4, the Corporation of London:" And whereas by the Acts hereinafter mentioned, and hereinafter referred to as the Coal Duties Acts (that is to say): 1 & 2 Vict. c. 101. 8 & 9 Vict. c. 101. 14 & 15 Vict c. 146. 1. An Act passed in the session of Parliament holden in the first and second years of the reign of His late Majesty King William the Fourth, chapter seventy-six, intituled, "An Act for Regulating the Vend and Delivery of Coals in the Cities of London and Westminster, and in certain Parts of the Counties of Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Berkshire:" 2. An Act passed in the session of Parliament holden in the first and second years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter one hundred and one, intituled, "An Act to continue for Seven Years an Act for Regulating the Vend and Delivery of Coals in London and Westminster, and in certain Parts of the adjacent Counties:" 3. An Act passed in the session of Parliament holden in the or some or one of such Acts, two several duties of 1d. (a), and (a) The 1d. duty was imposed by the 47 Geo. 3, c. 68, and it was continued by succeeding Acts till 5th July, 1862. This duty was originally imposed in order to establish a coal market, and the 8 & 9 Vict. c. 101, continued it for the purpose of providing a fund for the opening of poor and densely populated districts in the metropolis, or for keeping open spaces in the immediate vicinity of the same, as a means of promoting the public convenience, recreation, and health. (b) This duty consists of an 8d. and a 4d. duty. The 8d. duty was by various Acts of parliament especially appropriated to public improvements, and a considerable proportion of the improvements effected in late years have been defrayed out of it. The 8d. duty was included in the London Bridge Approaches Fund, and its net produce was paid over to Her Majesty's Office of Works for the liquidation of loans raised on the credit of it. The 4d. duty has always been claimed by the corporation of London as a part of the city's estate. of London upon all coals, culm, and cinders brought to any place within the port of London, or within the cities of London and Westminster, and the borough of Southwark, or to any place within the distance of twenty miles from the General Post Office in the city of London, by any railway already constructed, or hereafter to be constructed, or by inland navigation, or by any other means of conveyance: And whereas it is apprehended that the duty of 8d., part of the said duty of 18., will expire in the year 1861, and the said duty of ld, in the month of July, 1862, unless provision be made by parliament for the continuance of such duties: And whereas it is expedient that the said duties of 48. on wines, and 18. 1d. on coals, culm, and cinders should be continued for a period of ten years: Be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: I. The above-mentioned duty of 4s. a tun on wines shall Continuation continue and be levied in all respects in the same manner as the same is now leviable until the 5th day of July, 1872. of wine duties. II. All duties authorized by the Coal Duties Acts, or any of Continuance them, to be levied upon coal, culm, and cinders, shall con- of coal tinue and be levied in the same manner in which the same are duties. now leviable until the 5th day of July, 1872, subject to the following qualification: That, notwithstanding anything contained in the said Acts, no duties shall be payable in respect of any coal, culm, or cinders, unless the same is contained in some ship or vessel arriving at her moorings within some part of the port of London (c) to the westward of Gravesend, within the limits of the metropolitan police district as defined by Act of Parliament (d), or be brought by railway, or by inland navigation, or by some other mode of conveyance within the said limits of the metropolitan police district, including the cities of London and Westminster. III. After the passing of this Act the expression "London Metropolitan district," (e) used in the said recited Act of the fourteenth and police disfifteenth Victoria, chapter one hundred and forty-six, shall no (c) The port of London extends from Staines, in the county of Middlesex, to Yantlete Creek, in the county of Kent. (d) See definition of these limits in the 10 Geo. 4, c. 44, s. 4, and Schedule to the Act, and the 2 & 3 Vict. c. 47, s. 2. 14 & 15 Vict. c. 146, s. 50, defined (e) The London district was by Westminster. trict substituted for the trict. London dis- longer have the meaning assigned to it by that Act, but shall mean so much of the several counties of Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, Herts, Essex, Bucks, and Berks, as shall be situate within the metropolitan police district, and shall include the cities of London and Westminster. Commence ment of police dis trict to be marked in ways, and IV. All the directions, powers, and provisions in the said recited Act of the fourteenth and fifteenth Victoria, chapter metropolitan one hundred and forty-six, with respect to returns, certificates, and accounts, and to the erection of boxes, and stations, and boundary stones, or permanent marks on the point of any canals, rail canal, inland navigation, or railway, or any turnpike or public road which shall be distant twenty miles from the General Post Office, and all other matters and things relating thereto, shall apply to returns, certificates, and accounts, and to the erection of boxes, and stations, and boundary stones, or permanent marks on the point where any canal, inland navigation, or railway, or any turnpike or public road, first enters or comes within the metropolitan police district. roads. Application of duties. Application of the duty of 4d. to the payment of V. The duty of 1d. per ton on coals, culm, and cinders shall from and after the passing of this Act, and the said duty of 48. per tun on wines, and the duty of 8d., part of the said duty of 18., on coals, culm, and cinders, shall, from and after such time as all charges on the London Bridge Approaches Fund may be satisfied (h), be paid to an account to be opened in the name of the lords commissioners of Her Majesty's treasury at the Bank of England, to be intiuled "The Thames Embankment and Metropolis Improvement Fund," and such fund shall be applied to the improvement of the metropolis in such manner as may hereafter be determined by parliament (¿). VI. That the net proceeds of the duty of 4d., part of the said duty of 18. on coal, culm, and cinders, shall, from the date of the passing of this Act, and during the continuance (h) The 13 & 14 Vict. c. 103, an Act to authorize further charges on the London Bridge Approaches Fund for the completion of certain improvements in the metropolis, enacted, that, after payment of all principal monies, &c., charged on the London Bridge Approaches Fund, the residue or surplus should, during the continuance thereof, be applied to the opening an improved line of communication between Coventry Street and Covent Garden, according to a plan to be thereafter approved by parliament. And by 20 & 21 Vict. sess. 2, 1857, it is provided that the improvement authorized by that Act, and called the Covent Garden Approach, shall be deemed the improved line of communication referred to in the said Act of the 13 & 14 Vict. c. 103. (i) See Act for embanking the north side of the River Thames from Westminster Bridge to Blackfriars Bridge, and for making new streets in and near thereto, 25 & 26 Vict. c. 93, post. of sums thereof, be applied by the mayor, commonalty, and citizens of the interest the city of London, in the first instance, in payment of the and principal interest and in discharge of the principal of the following charged sums raised by the said mayor, commonalty, and citizens of thereupon the city of London, and charged by them upon the said duty; for improveviz., the sums 300,000l., 200,0007., and 40,0001., raised for ments. making and improving Cannon Street, in the city of London, and for effecting other improvements in the said city as authorized by the Acts of parliament of the tenth and eleventh Victoria, chapter two hundred and eighty, thirteenth and fourteenth Victoria, chapter fifty-six, and the fifteenth and sixteenth Victoria, chapter seventy-two, and that an account of the receipt and application of the said duty be kept separate and distinct from the accounts of the said mayor, commonalty, and citizens, and that an abstract of the said account be annually laid by the chamberlain of the said city before both houses of parliament, and that after discharging the said sums and interest, the said duty of 4d. shall be applied by the said corporation of London towards or in aid of such a public improvement or improvements in or adjacent to the city of London as parliament shall hereafter sanction. to be allowed. VII. There shall be allowed with respect to coals brought Drawback within the port of London, or within the metropolitan police upon coals district, and afterwards conveyed to any place beyond the to continue port of London or the metropolitan police district, a drawback of the same amount and upon the same conditions as is allowed by the said recited Act of the fourteenth and fifteenth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter one hundred and forty-six, and the coal duties, London, &c., Drawback Act, 1857, or one of such Acts, in respect of the coals therein mentioned, and the lord mayor, aldermen, and commons of the city of London in common council assembled shall have power, with the consent of the board of trade, to alter, vary, or dispense with any of the forms in relation to the drawback upon coals contained in the said recited Act of the fourteenth and fifteenth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter one hundred and forty-six. VIII. The monies from time to time paid to the account Duty to be created by this Act shall, when received, be laid out and laid out and form an acinvested in the purchase of stock in some of the public stocks cumulating or funds, or upon government or real securities, at interest, fund for imin the name of the said commissioners, and the said commis- provements sioners shall from time to time lay out or invest the yearly priated by till approdividends or interest of the stocks, funds, and securities so to parliament. be purchased in their names on the account aforesaid, in like manner, for the purpose of accumulation in the meantime, until the said fund is appropriated by parliament to the execution of improvements in the metropolis. |