(126.) EXPORTATION VIA SAN ANTONIO TO MEXICO. Port Lavaca, under existing regulations, is the only port in the district of Saluria, through which merchandise duly entered and bonded at any other port in the United States, and withdrawn for exportation to Mexico by inland routes, can be transhipped to its destination via San Antonio.—(Letter of May 21, 1868, to Surveyor, Port Lavaca, Texas.) (127.) GALVANIZED IRON TELEGRAPH WIRE DUTIABLE AT 2 CTS. PER POUND AND 15 PER CENT. AD VALOREM. Galvanized Iron Telegraph Wire is dutiable at 2 cents per pound and 15 per cent. ad valorem under the clause of section 3, Act June 30, 1864, reading as follows: "On iron wire, bright copper or tinned, drawn and finished not more than of an inch in diameter, nor less than number sixteen wire gauge, $2.00 per cwt., and in addition thereto fifteen per centum ad valorem."-(Letter to Collector, New York, May 21, 1868.) (128.) ENROLMENT AND LICENSE. Vessels owned or hired by a bridge company and used exclusively in conveying materials to their bridge and the boats used at the bridge for driving piles are not engaged in trade and therefore not subject to enrolment or license. Vessels used partly as wood boats and partly in jobbing with lumber, &c., are subject to enrolment and license, or license according to their tonnage.-(Letter to Commissioner of Customs, May 21, 1868.) (129.) PROTEST AGAINST PAYMENT OF TONNAGE TAX, WHERE TO BE MADE. A protest against the payment of tonnage tax must be made to the Collector of the port where the money is exacted in order to comply with the requirements of law.—(Letter to Surveyor, Cincinnati, May 22, 1868.) (130.) GOODS SHIPPED TO THE UNITED STATES FROM ONE FOREIGN PORT VIA ANOTHER. Damage occurring to goods (shipped from Germany to the U. S. via Liverpool) while in the harbor of Liverpool is considered as occurring during the voyage of importation, in accordance with the decision of this Department of July 6, 1866. The continuity of a voyage is not broken by mere transshipment at an intermediate port. (Letters to Collector, New York, May 19 and 25, 1868.) (131.) TONNAGE DUES PAID ON A FOREIGN VESSEL WHICH IS SUBSEQUENTLY LOST CANNOT BE REFUNDEDTHE HULL, &c., NOT DUTIABLE. Where a foreign vessel in ballast from a foreign port, (Liverpool,) while riding at anchor in a storın, parts her chains and is beached, the tonnage tax collected on entry cannot be refunded. The rigging, masts, and spars, &c., together with the hull of the vessel are not dutiable. (Letter to Collector, Pensacola, Florida, May 25, 1868.) (132.) DISTRICT ATTORNEYS' ACCOUNTS, UNDER ACT JULY 18, 1866. The seventh section, Act July 18, 1866, provides that for expenses, services, &c., under that act, the District Attorney shall receive such allowance as the Secretary of the Treasury shall deem just and reasonable, upon the certificate of the Judge before whom such prosecution was had. The certificate of the Judge in this case is not conclusive upon the Secretary. It is a preliminary form, necessary under the act, to confer jurisdiction of the account upon the Secretary; after being so certified, he is to determine whether, in his judgment, it is just and reasonable.—(Letter to U. S. Attorney, Detroit, Michigan, May 26, 1868.) (133.) SEALED CARS-LOCKS OR SEALS VIOLATED-CONTENTS TREATED AS FOREIGN MERCHANDISE. When the locks and seals of cars on which bonded merchandise has been transported have been removed or broken in such a way as to allow free access to the goods, the contents of the cars should be treated as foreign merchandise and duties imposed thereon accordingly.—(Letter to Collector, Suspension Bridge, N. Y., May 26, 1868.) (134.) POSTAL CONVENTION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES. By the terms of the 5th clause of said P. C. all articles transmitted by mail, on which duties are chargeable in the United States, are liable to the payment of those duties. Collectors are required to open such packages, when discovered and sent to them by postmasters, and to collect the duties thereon, but not entry or other fees.—(Letter to Collector, Chicago, Ill., May 28, 1868.) (135.) WOOL PICKINGS DUTY 10 CENTS PER POUND AND 11 PER CENT. AD VALOREM. "Wool pickings" from Canada are liable to duty at 10 cents per pound and 11 per cent. ad. val. under Class No. 2 of the 1st section of the Act of March 2, 1867.-(Letter to Thos. Nixon, Esq., Toronto, Canada, May 29, 1869.) (136.) LANDING CERTIFICATES. The certificate of the Collector or Chief Revenue Officer of the foreign port where merchandise is landed, required by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue in his regulations respecting drawback, has been dispensed with, except with respect to exportations to the Dominion of Canada; and landing certificates of merchandise, exported to any country except Canada, for drawback of Internal Revenue taxes are now executed in the same form and manner as required for cancellation of export bonds in the customs.—(Letter to Secretary of State, May 29, 1868.) (137.) DEPOSIT OF PUBLIC FUNDS. A disbursing officer cannot deposit public moneys in banks in which he is interested as stockholder. -Letter to Collector, 2d District, Davenport, Iowa, May 29, 1868.) (138.) INFORMER'S SHARE. A sum of money received as duty, or in lieu of duty, is not divisible with informer. A fine, properly so called, is divisible, although it be of precisely the same amount as the duty. There is nothing in the law which debars a deputy collector from being an informer.-(Letter to Collector, Portland, Maine, May 30, 1868.) (I.) CIRCULAR OF REGULATIONS FOR ENFORCEMENT OF LIENS FOR FREIGHT ON IMPORTED MERCHANDISE. The following regulations are prescribed respecting the enforcement of liens for freight on imported merchandise under the 3d section of the act of 2d March, 1867; and all previous regulations on that subject are superseded. Claimants must serve NOTICE on collector-what it must specify. Persons claiming a lien for freight upon imported goods in the possession of a Collector or other chief officer of the Customs must serve upon him a written or printed notice, signed by the lien claimant, and designating particularly the goods, packages, marks, numbers, and brands; the warehouse in which the same are stored; the names of the owners, importers, or consignees, and of the vessel by which the goods were imported, or if brought by land, the nature of the vehicle carrying them, and the route; the date of arrival of the goods, and the amount claimed. NOTICE must be signed and verified by claimant. This notice must be signed by the lien claimant, or his agent, duly authorized and filed at the custom-house, and must be verified by affidavit as follows: I, do solemnly swear [or affirm] that the facts set forth in the annexed notice are true as alleged; and that the sum claimed therein is still due, and was a legal subsisting lien upon the goods therein described at the time the same passed into the custody of the Customs officers. Sworn to, and subscribed before me, this day of 186 Collector. Abstract record to be kept. A record book or docket will be provided in which shall be immediately entered an abstract or minute of every such notice received. This book should have an alphabetical index in which to enter the names of the owners, consignees, or importers, and also the names of the vessels. The notices themselves will be numbered consecutively and carefully preserved. Collector's fee-authority, &c. The usual fee of twenty cents will be charged for verifying the oath attached to the notice, which must be paid to the Collector and by him accounted for as other fees. The authority and duty of the Collector extends simply to refuse to deliver goods covered by such a notice until satisfied that the debt thus claimed and verified has been paid or secured. He has no authority to deliver the goods to the lien claimant, nor to adjudicate disputes respecting the validity of the claim, nor to recognize any other lien than that for freight. The third section of the act of March 2, 1867, is as follows, the 17th section of the act of July 28, 1866, being repealed: "SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That whenever the collector or other chief officer of the customs of any port shall be notified in writing, by the owner or consignee of any vessel or vehicle arriving from any foreign port or place, of a lien for freight on any merchandise imported in such vessel or vehicle, and remaining in his custody, such collector or other officer is hereby anthorized and empowered to refuse the delivery of such merchandise from any public or bonded warehouse, or other place in which the same shall be deposited, until proof to his satisfaction shall be produced that the freight due thereon has been paid or secured; but the rights of the United States shall not be prejudiced thereby, nor shall the United States or its officers be in any manner liable for losses consequent upon such refusal to deliver; and if merchandise so subject to a lien, regarding which notice has been filed as aforesaid, shall be forfeited to the United States and sold, the freight due thereon shall be paid from the proceeds of such sale in the same manner as other charges and expenses now authorized by law to be paid therefrom.” H. McCULLOCH, |