INTRODUCTORY NOTES.

The following notes contain such regulations as are of general application to the Customs Tariffs of the respective Colonies: they are given here in order to avoid repetition in the following pages.

INDIA

CEYLON

[For notes relating to regulations affecting dutiable articles sent to the Colonies by Parcel Post, see p. 431.]

MAURITIUS

Government Stores are free of duty.

(a) The importation is prohibited of parts of articles, viz., any distinct or separate part of any article not accompanied by the other part, or all the other parts, of such articles, so as to be complete or perfect, in all cases where such articles are subject to duty at an ad valorem rate.

(b) The rate of exchange at which the value of goods coming from countries with a gold standard of currency shall be declared for the purpose of levying ad valorem duties thereon is as follows for the year 1902 :

For countries having a sterling currency, the £ sterling to be equivalent to 15 rupees.

For countries having other currencies, the equivalent of the £ sterling to be as follows:

For Germany

SEYCHELLES

BRITISH NEW GUINEA

AUSTRALIAN COMMON

WEALTH.

20 marks.

France and French Colonies
Switzerland

25 francs.

The Governor in Executive Council

may, upon the report of the Collector of Customs, remit or refund the whole or any portion of the duties, in the case of goods imported under special circumstances, or for an object or enterprise which may be deemed beneficial to the Colony.

Animals and goods (except oil, spirits, and tobacco), the produce of any of the dependeucies of Mauritius, except the Seychelles, are admitted free of duty.

The importation is prohibited of articles of foreign manufacture, or any packages of such articles, bearing any names, brands, or marks, being or purporting to be the names, brands, or marks, of manufacturers resident in the United Kingdom.

(c) The Administrator in Executive Council may, upon the report of the Collector of Customs, remit or refund the whole or any portion of the duty, in the case of any goods imported under special circumstances, or for any object or enterprise which may be deemed beneficial to the Seychelles Islands.

(d) If any articles are imported in the form of a bag, package,
box, tin, jar, bottle, &c., marked or labelled or commonly sold
as containing, or commonly reputed to contain, a specific quantity
of such article, such bag, package, &c., shall be deemed, as
against the importer, to contain such specific quantity.

(e) The following goods are prohibited from importation-
(1) Any manufactured articles produced wholly or in part by
prison labour, or which have been made within or in
connection with any prison, gaol, or penitentiary.
(2) Having thereon or therewith any false suggestion of any
warranty, guarantee, or concern in the production or
quality thereof by any persons, public officials,

AUSTRALIAN

INTRODUCTORY NOTES--continued.

COMMON

WEALTH-cont.

(f) Goods exported to Australia from any country but passing
through another country, shall be valued for duty as if they
were imported directly from such first-mentioned country.
(g) Small samples of the bulk of any goods subject to the control
of the Customs may, subject to the prescribed conditions, be
delivered free of duty.

Goods, the produce of Australia, or samples of duty-paid goods sent out of Australia, may, subject to any prescribed conditions, be re-imported or brought back to Australia without payment of duty.

No goods, the property of the Commonwealth, shall be liable to any duty of Customs, and such minor articles as may be specified in departmental byelaws for use in the manufacture of goods within the Commonwealth, may be admitted free of duty.

Western Australia (h) By the Western Australia Act, No. 3, of 1901, assented to on October 9th, 1901, it is provided that-

NEW ZEALAND

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
NATAL, AND ORANGE
RIVER COLONY.

"The duties of Customs in force in Western Australia at the "date immediately preceding the imposition of uniform duties "of Customs under the Commonwealth of Australia Con"stitution Act, so far as they relate to goods passing into "Western Australia, and not originally imported from "beyond the limits of the Commonwealth, are re-imposed, "and shall continue in force, subject to the provisions of "section 95 of the said Act."

66

By section 95 of the Constitution Act, it is enacted that "Any duty imposed on any goods shall not exceed during the first year the duty chargeable on the goods under the "law of Western Australia in force at the imposition of "uniform duties, and shall not exceed during the second, "third, fourth, and fifth of such years respectively, four"fifths, three-fifths, two-fifths, and one-fifth of such latter "duty, and all duties imposed under this section shall cease " at the expiration of the fifth year after the imposition of "uniform duties."

Note.-The Australian Commonwealth Federal Tariff came into operation on October 8th, 1901.

The rates of duty in force in Western Australia prior to the passing of the Federal Tariff were stated in the previous issue of this Return (Parliamentary Paper No. 336 of 1901). (i) In addition to any duty chargeable by law on any goods imported into the Colony, a further duty of 20% ad valorem is charged when the goods are prison made.

Such articles and materials as may from time to time be specified by the Commissioner as being suited only for, and to be used solely in, the fabrication of goods within the Colony, may be admitted free of duty.

(j) The following articles may be imported free of duty :
All raw produce of South Africa and animals bred in South
Africa imported overland; also all animals bred and articles
grown, produced, or manufactured within the South African
Customs Union, are free of duty, except-

(1) Flour, wheaten or wheaten meal, including pollard,
manufactured from other than South African wheat,*

and

*The duty on flour imported into Natal (for home consumption only) is suspended to

INTRODUCTORY NOTES-continued.

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
NATAL, AND ORANGE
RIVER COLONY--cont.

LAGOS .

GOLD COAST

(2) Spirits distilled from the produce of, and within the Union, of a class upon which, by way of excise, a duty may at the time of importation into the Colony be by its law imposed or levied, unless it be proved that a like duty of not less amount has been paid elsewhere within the Union in respect of the spirits so imported:

Provided that, if such a duty shall have so been paid elsewhere within the Union, but of less amount, then there may be by law imposed or levied upon such spirits when imported, a duty of Customs not greater than the difference between the Excise duty legally imposed or levied on spirits of the same class in the Colony, and the duty of less amount which has been so paid elsewhere.

All articles imported by post in transit to other parts of the Union, and also wine, spirits and beer for the sole use of commissioned officers serving on full pay in the Regular Military and Naval Forces of His Majesty are admitted free of duty.

The countries constituting the South African Customs Union are

Cape Colony.

Natal.

Bechuanaland Protectorate.

Basutoland.

Note. The Customs Union Tariff is also in operation as regards articles imported for consumption into the Orange River Colony.

(k) A drawback of the import duty shall be allowed to the extent of 2s. 10 d. per gallon on spirits, 7 d. per lb. on manufactured tobacco or snuff, 3 d. on unmanufactured tobacco, and threefourths of the duties of importation upon all other articles, upon their exportation by inland navigation or overland carriage to Porto Novo or to places beyond the western limit of the Colony and Protectorate of Lagos, on such conditions as the Governor in Council may direct, or to parts beyond the seas, other than Northern and Southern Nigeria.

Upon articles transhipped out of bond to the countries named, the following duties are payable :

Liq. gall.
Pf. gall.
Lb.

14d.

14d.

d.

id.

One quarter of the

import duty.

exported to Northern or

No drawback is allowed on articles Southern Nigeria, nor may articles be transhipped thereto until the full duty leviable in Lagos has been paid.

Products, natural and mineral, of Northern or Southern Nigeria, and goods upon which duty has been paid therein, may be imported into Lagos free of duty, or, if the duty paid in Nigeria be less than that payable in Lagos, upon payment of the difference of duty.

(1) Articles, the bonâ fide produce of West Africa, may be imported into that part of the Colony lying to the west of the River Volta free of duty.

(m) A convention concluded on 24th February 1894, between Great Britain and Germany, which came into force in May 1894, provided that

"The British Possessions on the Gold and Slave Coasts, lying "to the eastward of the River Volta, and the German "Possessions on the Gold and Slave Coasts, shall form