This law is to take effect as provided in the first article on the 1st day of
next month.
A copy of the act with the translation is herewith transmitted to the
Department.
Upon examination it will be found that this law is arranged in two
chapters.
The first chapter provides that from the first day of next December the
consuls and commercial agents of this republic shall visé invoices of
merchandise and specie shipped to Hayti, without charge; that where there is
no Haytien consular officer declaration of the invoice shall be certified by
a notary public; that in default of such visa or declaration a fine of $50
shall be imposed; that charges of visa of manifests, bills of health,
passports, authentications of signatures, provisional certificates of
naturalization, and of all other documents not provided for, shall be
collected in accordance with the first article of the law of the 23d of
August 1877; that consuls and agents shall have no right to make deduction
of such charges of visa, but shall render account thereof to the secretary
of state of finances and of commerce; and that for their services they shall
receive the several amounts mentioned in the classification of allowances
provided in the fifth article of the law.
For such principal places as Paris, Liverpool, New York, and Havre such
classification provides $500 for each consular officer; while for such
officers as reside at less important places the allowance runs from
[Page 647]
$400, as at Hamburg and Boston,
down to $50, as at Nantes and Puerto Plata, per annum.
The second chapter of the law, after fixing the charge of one per cent. of
the value of the invoice of merchandise and of specie as a duty of registry
and of statistics, as already stated, and that this amount shall be
collected according to the laws and decrees, the directions and circulars of
the department of state of finances, defines the procedure to be had and the
disposition to be made of the proceeds of sales in cases where merchandise
found undervalued or falsely returned is seized by the government.
It is after no little effort certainly on the part of the representative of
our own government at this capital, and of his colleague of Her Britannic
Majesty, that the imposition and collection abroad of charges for consular
visa of invoices of merchandise and specie shipped to this country have been
discontinued and disallowed in the repeal of so much of the law of August
23, 1877, as is herein indicated; and it is to be hoped that my efforts in
this behalf will meet the approval of the Department.
[Inclosure in No.
414.—Translation.]
Law which abolishes charges of visa abroad, and
which establishes a duty of registry, and of statistics, and of
pre-emption.
Salomon, President of
Hayti:
Whereas the law of the 23d of August 1877, which establishes charges of
consular visa, has caused in practice certain difficulties which it is
necessary to remove;
Upon the proposition of the secretary of state of finances, of commerce
and of foreign relations, and upon the advice of the council of
secretaries of state, has proposed, and the Corps Legislatif has enacted
the following law:
Chapter I.
Article I. After the 1st day of December next
the consuls and commercial agents of the Republic shall be required to
visa gratuitously invoices of money as well as of merchandise destined
to the ports of Hayti, without such visas may cease to be obligatory
upon the triplicate copies of such invoices as has been provided in
article 3 of the law of the 23d of August, 1877. The declaration
certified before a notary public in foreign ports where Haytian agents
are not found shall continue to be also obligatory.
Art. II. In default of the above visa or of the
certified declaration there shall be imposed a fine fixed at the sum of
$50.
Art. III. The charges of visa of manifests, of
bills of health of ships, of passports, of authentication of signatures,
of provisional certificates of naturalization and of all other documents
not provided for shall continue to be collected according to Article I
of the law of the 23d of August, 1877.
Art. IV. The consuls and agents shall have no
right of deduction upon such charges of visa. They shall render account
thereof to the secretary of state of finances and of commerce, who shall
class such receipt according to Chapter III, section 1, of ways and
means, which may be deducted from office charges accorded to such
agents, orders of collection and payment having been duly arranged to
such affect.
Art. V. In remuneration of their services, the
consuls and commercial agents of the republic shall receive annually for
all office expenses generally whatsoever the following allowances in the
order of classing as follows:
| For Paris, Liverpool, New York, Havre to each Agent |
$500 |
| For Bordeaux and Marseilles |
300 |
| For Hamburg and Boston |
400 |
| For Wilmington, Bangor, Philadelphia, Kingston, St.
Thomas, and Hanover |
200 |
| For St. Nazaire, London, and Antwerp |
100 |
| For Nantes, Nice, Rouen, Barcelona, Lisbon, Belfast,
Queenstown, Dundee, Gibraltar, Bremen, Monrovia, Brussels,
Ghent, Vienna, Naples, Genoa, Amsterdam, Christiania,
Algiers, Philipville, Mastaganem, Oran, Halifax, Mobile,
Curacoa, Santiago de Cuba, Mayaguez, Tuagua and Nassau, St.
Domingo, Monte Christi, Puerto Plata, each |
50 |
[Page 648]
Chapter II.
Art. VI. After completion of a ship’s manifest
by the interpreter he shall send invoices visaed by him to the
custom-house, and it before any verification of merchandise shall have
prepared separately for each shipper a special memorandum of duty of
registry and of statistics estimated and fixed at one per cent. of the
value of the invoice of merchandise and of one per cent, of the value of
specie.
Art. VII. This special memorandum shall follow
the rule fixed by the laws and orders of finances, the directions and
circulars of the department of state, that is to say, that it shall be
collected, &c.; that the bank shall receive the amount thereof and
shall transmit to the shipper the acknowledgment visaed by the
administrator, stub detached, which shall serve him in taking his final
release of the custom-house, and to verify his merchandise.
Art. VIII. As soon as the interpreter shall
perceive that the value of merchandise declared is undervalued, and
returned falsified upon the invoice presented to him, he shall give
notice thereof to the director of the custom-house, who shall signify
the fact to the administrator of finances of the district, who shall
convoke in twenty-four hours a commission for the Capital composed of a
member of the chamber of accounts, and of two merchants of the place;
and for the other financial arrondissements, of the mayor, the justice
of the peace, and of a merchant, who shall decide upon the fact, the
proprietor of the merchandise having been duly notified. The neglect of
the interpreter shall not prevent the director of the custom-house or
the administrator himself from taking the initiative of the
information.
Art. IX. If the value of the merchandise
declared is undervalued, falsified, report signed by the members of the
commission shall be arranged in duplicate, one copy of which shall
remain with the administrator, and the other sent to the proprietor of
the merchandise, who shall make acknowledgment of the receipt thereof to
him. This report shall declare that the state retains on its account the
merchandise declared, the value of which has been found undervalued, and
falsified, provided that fifteen per cent. shall be accorded to the
proprietor upon the amount of his declaration, all commissions, freight,
charge of packing and all other whatsoever standing to his charge.
Art X. The proprietor of the merchandise shall
make thereof then memorandum, which, after having been ordered to be
paid by the administrator of finances, under the rubric of “expenses of
the duty of pre-emption,” shall be paid to him without delay, the
re-imbursement to take place only after the sale has been effected.
Art. XI. Such formalities accomplished, the
administrator shall cause the merchandise retained, the value of which
shall be collected under the rubric of “receipts of the duty of
pre-emption” to be sold at public auction.
Art. XII. The invoices of specie or of
merchandise which shall have paid abroad the charges of consular visa
before the 1st of December, and which shall arrive in our ports after
that date shall not be subject to the duty of registry and of
statistics.
Art. XIII. The present law abrogates all laws
and provisions of law which are contrary to it, and shall be executed at
the instance of the secretary of state of finances, of commerce, and of
foreign relations.
Given at the Senate Chamber at
Port au Prince, the 19th day of October,
1881, seventy-eighth year of the independence.
The president of the Senate:
M.
MONTASSE.
The secretaries:
T. Dupuy, J. P.
Lafontant.
Given at the Chamber of Representatives at Port au Prince, the 19th
of October, 1881, seventy-eight year of the independence. The
president of the Chamber:
In the name of the republic.
The President of Hayti orders that the above law of the Corps
Legislatif be stamped with the seal of the republic, printed,
published and executed.
Given at the national palace at
Port au Prince, October 22, 1881,
seventy-eighth year of the independence.
SALOMON.
By the President:
The secretary of state of finances, of commerce, and of foreign
relations.
B. St. Victor.
