(10587.)

Currencies-Valuation of depreciated.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 10, 1891.

SIR: I have duly considered your letter of the 1st instant and its accompaniments, as well as the statements you verbally made at a recent personal interview, and have reached the conclusion that no good reasons exist for changing the recent decision of the Department concerning the assessment of duty on merchandise imported from countries having a paper currency claimed to be depreciated, which decision is to the effect that invoices made out in such currency must, under the statute, be considered as made out in the standard coin of the foreign country of exportation, the value of which is fixed by the proclamation of the Secretary of the Treasury, issued in pursuance of section 52 of the act of October 1, 1890.

This accords with the views expressed by you, which are to the effect that "the only currency recognized in section 52 of the act of October 1, 1890, is a metallic currency, viz, foreign coin, and that the value of foreign coin as expressed in the money of account of the United States shall be that of the pure metal of such coin of standard value," the consequence being that the value of such coin, as proclaimed by the Secretary of the Treasury, must be taken as a basis for the assessment of duty on imported merchandise.

To meet the change made by such decision in the practice which has so long prevailed, with the sanction of this Department, of treating invoices which are made out in alleged depreciated paper currency as being entitled to reduction to the coin standard in accordance with the certificate of the United States consular officer at the time of the exportation of the goods, the Department has addressed a communication to the Secretary of State, in which that officer is requested to direct United States consular officers in countries where depreciated paper money is in circulation (as, for instance, Russia, Turkey, and the Argentine Republic), to decline to issue any further certificates of depreciation of such currency, and to notify shippers of goods intended for the United States that their invoices in future must be made out at the coin value of the merchandise at the time and in the country of exportation, and for this purpose to consider the existing consular regulations providing for the issuance of such certificates as revoked and annulled.

With a view, however, of affording relief to importers of merchandise from such countries, in cases similar to those specified in your

letter, where it would seem a great hardship would be imposed by immediately enforcing the said decision, and also by reason of the longcontinued practice of accepting such currency certificates, the Department has reached the conclusion that entries of importations made prior to April 1, 1891, from countries having such depreciated currency, for which invoices are presented made out so as to clearly show that the currency therein specified is a paper currency, may be adjusted by estimating the value of the currency in accordance with the consular certificate which may be attached to the invoice, provided that such value may be returned as correct by the appraiser. This exceptional privilege will not extend beyond the date above mentioned.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, December 11, 1890.

SIR: The Department is in receipt of your letter of the 5th instant, concerning the free entry of fish brought by fishing vessels belonging to your port, which proceed during the winter months to Fortune Bay and Placentia Bay in Newfoundland, for the purpose of securing "fares" of salted and frozen herring for the supply of our markets, either for food or bait, as circumstances may determine.

You state that the owners of said vessels, instead of taking out fishing licenses with permits to touch and trade, sail them under registers, for reasons wholly connected with the customs laws of Newfoundland and Canada; that they take in the said vessels the necessary salt, nets, and fishing gear for the purpose of making the catch, but that since the troubles in Fortune Bay in 1877, when their nets were destroyed by the inhabitants, and the vessels driven off, it has been found expedient to propitiate the natives by making them pecuniarily interested in the procurement of the "fares" of the vessels, and, consequently, that of late years our fishermen have been employing native fishermen to run their nets across the small coves or indentations of the shore, so as to obtain sufficient quantities of herring to load the vessels.

You further report that the fish, after being secured in this manner, and bailed out of the water, are delivered in boats directly on board the fishing vessels, when they are either frozen and packed in bulk in the holds of the vessels, or else salted in bulk, so that when unladen they can be packed in packages suitable for our markets.

It also appears that, in reply to certain parties who wrote to you upon the subject, you informed them that, under the circumstances mentioned, the "fares" or cargoes of the vessels so caught and preserved, as aforesaid, would, upon being landed at your port, be entitled to free entry, under the provisions in the free list, paragraph 571, for "fish, the product of American fisheries."

While it has been heretofore held by the Department that fish caught by foreign vessels, and purchased by American fishing vessels, would not be entitled to free entry as products of the American fisheries, yet it has also been held (see Synopsis 7933) that fish taken by the crews of American vessels with the assistance of men and nets hired in Newfoundland for that purpose would be free of duty as such products.

Following such ruling, which, it is understood, has governed the practice in the premises, the said fish caught as aforesaid, and brought into your port by the said American fishing vessels, would be entitled to free entry, and your opinion is therefore concurred in by the Department.

Fee for certified extract of the certificate of manufacture of bags for expor

tation.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 12, 1891.

SIR: The Department is in receipt of your letter of the 31st ultimo, relative to the question presented by Special Agent W. S. Chance, whether a fee of 20 cents shall be charged, under the provisions of paragraph 9 in section 2654, Revised Statutes, and paragraph 81 of Synopsis 10275, for each certified extract of the certificate of manufacture of bags for export with benefit of drawback, or whether such extract should be considered merely as a "memorandum between offi

cers for the convenience or security of the United States," and not as a certificate "required by and given to a merchant or his agent," within the meaning of said paragraph 81.

It appears that, at the port of Philadelphia, the certificate in question is held to be a certificate of the latter description, and subject to a fee of 20 cents, while the same is regarded by your office as pertaining to the category of documents required by the interests of the service, and is therefore furnished free of charge.

The regulations relative to the allowance of drawback on the exportation of bags manufactured from imported cloth (article 41, circular No. 118, November 15, 1890), provide as follows:

In case bags covered by a manufacturer's certificate are exported from a port other than that at which such certificate is filed the collector holding such certificate shall, at the request in writing of the party by whom it was filed, issue an extract therefrom for use at the port from which exportation is made.

The document thus provided for seems to be equally referable to either of the categories of official certificates specified in said paragraph $1 of Synopsis 10275, but, in view of the fact that its use is incident to "entries of domestic goods, wares, and merchandise for exportation," specified in section 22 of the act of June 10, 1890, the Department is of opinion that the exclusion of the certified abstract in question from the class of certificates subject to fee under the above-cited paragraph of the new fee list is more in accordance with the general policy of the law concerning custom-house fees, and your action in discontinuing the collection of such fee since the date on which said section 22 went into effect (August 1, 1890), is therefore hereby approved. Respectfully yours,

COLLECTOR OF CUSTOMS, New York.

O. L. SPAULDING,

Assistant Secretary.

(10590.)

Drawback on cocoanut cakes and tea rolls.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 13, 1891.

SIR: On the exportation of cocoanut cakes and tea rolls, manufactured by Croft & Allen, of Philadelphia, Pa., in part from such refined Sugar as would be entitled to drawback if it were exported separately

a drawback will be allowed at the rate of 2 cents per pound of the refined sugar used in the manufacture, less the legal deduction of 1 per centum.

The quantity of the sugar so used will be determined by allowing 20 pounds of sugar for every 100 pounds of the net weight of the exported articles.

The above proportion shall be verified from time to time by an analysis of samples to be taken and submitted to the appraiser by the inspector superintending the shipment.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 13, 1891.

SIR: On the exportation of sweet confectioners' chocolate, manufactured by O. H. Wilbur & Sons, of Philadelphia, Pa., from imported cacao beans and such refined sugar as would be entitled to drawback if it were exported separately, a drawback will be allowed at the rate of 2 cents per pound of the refined sugar used in the manufacture, less the legal deduction of 1 per centum.

The quantity of the sugar so used will be determined by allowing 50 pounds of sugar for every 100 pounds of the net weight of the exported article.

The above proportion shall be verified from time to time by an analysis of samples to be taken and submitted to the appraiser by the inspector superintending the shipment.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 13, 1891.

SIR: The Department is in receipt of a letter from the collector of customs at New York, dated the 6th instant, in which he states that