STAMP DUTIES 
375 
Accordingly, when an instrument chargeable with duty 
is produced to the secretary of a company for any purpose it 
becomes his duty to ascertain that it is duly stamped before 
he can regard it as available for the purpose, and if any 
doubt arises it will rest upon the person producing it to 
satisfy him that it is duly stamped. In ordinary circum- 
stances it is not, however, necessary to do more than to see 
that the instrument when produced appears to be sufficiently 
stamped, and in the case of a document bearing a proper 
adhesive stamp the presumption is that the stamp was 
affixed at the proper time unless the contrary is shown. In 
any case of doubt the person producing the instrument 
should be directed to apply to the commissioners of Inland 
Revenue for the duty to be determined as provided by s. 12 
of the Act. The importance of the sub-section to secretaries 
of companies becomes apparent on a reference to s. 17 of the 
Act, which is as follows: — 
If any person whose office it is to enrol, register, or enter 
in or upon any rolls, books, or records, any instrument 
chargeable with duty enrols, registers, or enters any 
such instrument not being duly stamped, he shall 
incur a fine of £10. 
The responsibility of a secretary or registering officer of a 
company in this matter is similar to that of the Registrar 
of Companies, and it was established in 1888 in the 
case of R. v. The Registrar of Joint Stock Companies [21 
Q.B.D. 131], relating to the refusal of the Registrar to 
file a contract on the ground that it was insufficiently 
stamped, that the proper mode of questioning the legality 
of his refusal was to present the contract for the adjudication 
of the Commissioners under s. 12 of the Act, and an applica- 
tion for a mandamus against the Registrar was accordingly 
refused. 
In the case of a transfer of shares or stock or marketable 
securities where a sum less than the market value is shown 
as the consideration for the transfer, or in the opinion of the 
secretary or registering officer there is any doubt as to the 
sufficiency of the stamp thereon, it is desirable that he should 
require the opinion of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue 
to be obtained, seeing that if the transfer is made (1) on a 
sale, (2) in satisfaction in the whole or in part of a pecuniary 
legacy which is chargeable as on a sale for the amount of 
the legacy discharged thereby, (3) in liquidation of a debt, 
or (4) in exchange for other securities, ad valorem duty is 
in each case payable on the value or agreed value of the