270 Timehri. 
Note must also be taken of the beneficent reform which provided 
a means by which importers are prevented from rushing their 
goods through the Customs at any time that the Combined Court 
may be considering changes in the rates of Customs duties. The Ordinance 
(32 of 1905) provides that changes of duty when effected by the Court 
come into operation from and inclusive of the day upon which the Court 
resolved itself into a Committee of Ways and Means at the session at which 
the Customs Duties Ordinance is passed, unless otherwise provided for. 
The object of this amendment is to prevent loss of revenue by persons 
taking out of bond, or passing through the Customs during the sitting of 
the Combined Court or before the coming into operation of a new Tariff 
articles upon which new or increased duties are imposed. There has been 
a repeal of the Customs Ordinance of 1884 relating to the production of 
a landing certificate in respect of goods exported. The new provision 
relieves the exporter of any obligation to produce any proof of the landing 
of the goods at the port of destination unless specially required to do so 
by the Comptroller of Customs; and to allow drawbacks to be paid on a 
declaration made by the party exporting on goods that they have been 
actually exported and have not been relanded in any part of the -colony. 
Landing certiticates must however be produced for all drawback goods 
exported in sailing vessels of less than 100 tons registered tonnage, and 
no certificates of drawback are to be prepared until such landing certificates 
are produced. 
In 1908 the ad valorem rate of duty was reduced from 15 per cent. 
to 124 per cent. There was no relief of the burden that hangs upon those 
necessaries of life upon which a specific and a higher rate of duty is 
imposed. A surtax of 5 per cent. was imposed in 1909-10. The next 
year saw the abolition of the surtax on imported matches, the ad valorem 
rate was put back to 15 per cent., and the surtax thereon was raised from 
5 to 10 per cent. The drawback on oil used as fuel for driving machinery 
was changed so that the amount of duty retained for the public use was 
increased from one cent to ten cents per gallon. The importation of 
balata from Venezuela was prohibited in December, 1907. It had been 
the custom to refund the import duty on Venezuelan balata as drawback 
when the balata was shipped hence, and a certificate was produced of the 
landing of it at some port abroad. The foreign balata paid a half cent 
per lb. on importation; it passed into the possession of the importer, it 
was negotiable, it entered into competition with the local production, and 
then it was sent to the markets abroad unburdened by any fiscal charge. 
The royalty on local balata meanwhile was two cents per lb. An 
unnecessary export tax was imposed in 1910-11 on balata, but it was 
removed in the following year. 
A word must suffice as to the direction of the colony’s trade. The 
United Kingdom continues to be the best customer as a supplier. The 
