Childers to Rogers (Permanent Under-Secretary)

With reference to Mr Elliot's letter of the 6th
instant, transmitting a copy of a despatch from the Acting
Governor of British Columbia, respecting the Ordinance No
3 of 1865, "To amend the Duties of Customs," I am directed
by the Lords Commissoners of Her Majesty's Treasury to
acquaint you, for the information of Mr Secretary Cardwell,
that My Lords see no reason to modify the opinion expressed
in Their letter of the 31st of October last, that a
regulation under which "ad valorem" duties are calculated
according to the value of the article at the place of
shipment, instead of at the place of entry, in effect,
if not in words, establishes a system of differential duties;
inasmuch as the result must be to subject articles identical
in all respects and of the same price to the consumer to
different rates of duty, according as they may have been
shipped from different countries. They regret to find that
there is a precedent for this legislation in the fiscal
system of the Canadian Provinces; and since Their letter
of the 31st of October last, They have called attention
to similar provisions in Colonial Acts transmitted for
Their opinion before confirmation by Her Majesty.

My Lords have only to suggest that the principle of
this regulation should receive full consideration by the
Secretary of State, and that the views at which Her Majesty's
Government may finally arrive should be communicated to the
Governments of all British Possessions in which "ad valorem"
duties of Customs are collected.