of 1868 the wools from the south fetched the highest prices, being considered cleaner and better than from any other districts.

Chascomus is a thriving place, situated on the side of a large lake. The railway terminus is a handsome building, and there is a good hotel kept by Mr. Devitt, besides Señor Titon's inn. The church, public schools, plaza, and a quinta built by Mr. Crawford on the edge of the lake, are worthy of mention; besides the well-furnished shops of Auld & Pettygrew, Standard agents, and King & Co. There is a resident Scotch clergyman, Rev. Mr. Fergusson. A resident Irish clergyman has also been recently appointed here, the Rev. Mr. Mullady. A telegraph wire connects the town. with Buenos Ayres and Montevideo. There are three trains to and from town daily, making the journey in five hours.

The projected prolongation to Dolores, for which the Government also offers a guarantee of 7 per cent., would open up many rich farming districts. The line would cross the estancia of Don Juan N. Fernandez, and pass by several lagoons, then touch at Lacombe's of Chischis; after traversing the estancia of Don Gregorio Lezama, it would cross the Rio Salado at Paso Villar. This is the chief engineering obstacle on the route. The line would next cross the estancias of Alzaga, Alvarez, Botet, Cordoba, Piñero, Madariaga, and Peredo, before reaching Dolores. This town is the great market of the south, and a place of much importance: it is about 50 miles trom Chascomus, and diligences ply between the towns, but the roads in winter are rather unpleasant for travelling.

There is another project to prolong the line towards Azul, but nothing positive has yet been arrived at, and it is probable that for some years the line will go no further than Chascomus.

TARIFF, TAXES, AND REGULATIONS.

119

CHAP. X.

TARIFFS, TAXES, REGULATIONS.

PROVINCIAL STAMPED PAPER.

ART. 1. The stamps to be used in all Provincial documents in Buenos Ayres (the Custom-house and Federal Courts being national, for which see page 179, Section A), shall be as follows:

Amount.

$3

$5

Art. 2. All bills of exchange, promissory notes, &c., whether in Buenos Ayres currency or other money, shall have stamps as in the foregoing scale.

Art. 3. All contracts for sale of houses or lands, or goods, and all monetary transactions for stated periods, either with or without a broker, shall be on stamped paper, but the first draft may be on plain paper.

Art. 4. Police contracts, such as for apprentices, servants, or orphans, shall have a $3 stamp; and the same for each page of a petition to any of the public authorities; also each page of an arbitration, notary's documents, &c.

Art. 5. A copy certificate of birth, marriage, or death, a license for the inner provinces, and each page of a valuator's report, shall have a $5 stamp.

Art. 6. A copy of special power of attorney, protest of a bill, or other registered document in a notary's office shall have a $10 stamp; the same for a «guia» for cattle, and «boletos» of measurement from the Topographic Department; also for each page of a contract with amount not expressed.

Art. 7. Documents for sale of furniture or real estate, and promises to pay, either with or without mortgage,' shall have the proper stamp as in Art. 1. Notary's certificates shall be on $3 stamp.

Art. 8. Certificates of registered contracts shall likewise be on $3 stamp. Art. 9. Copies of such documents as specified in Arts. 6 and 7, executed before 1862, shall have stamp as in Art. 1 on the first page, and $3 on following pages.

Art. 10. Each page of a land measurement, general power of attorney, or draft of a will, $20.

Art. 11. Despatches of promotion, license on coming of, age, or for fowling, the first page of a will, all petitions to Government or the law courts for measurement of frontier lands or beyond the Salado, or to the Topographic Department for delineations in the city, outside the area of Calles Corrientes, Belgrano, Piedras, Esmeralda, Defensa, and Julio, shall have a $100 stamp; but petitions to the Department for renewal of doors and windows shall only pay $30.

Art. 12. Petitions for measurement within the Salado aud the frontier, copies of plans from the Department, professional diplomas, and seals to wills, $200.

Art. 13. Petitions for professional matriculation, for delineation of house property within the area mentioned in Art. 11 shall pay $500, but renewal of doors and windows only $100.

Art. 14. Boletos for new marks, $500; copy or transfer of marks, $100.

1

Art. 15. Receipts may be given on plain paper, but if placed in evidence require a $3 stamp.

Art, 16. The party presenting the documents or originating proceedings shall pay the stamp.

Art. 17. Judges or authorities may use plain paper, pro tem.

Art. 18. No public employee shall admit a document not properly stamped.

Art. 19. Any party giving or receiving a document not properly stamped shall incur a fine of tenfold the proper stamp; notaries shall suffer the same fine, and for a second offence suspension.

Art. 20. In cases of doubt the proper authority shall decide the amount of stamp, without appeal.

Art. 21. In January each year all unused stamps may be exchanged. Art. 22. Spoiled stamps may be likewise exchanged at any time, paying $1 each.

Art. 23. Contracts for a monthly sum shall pay half the stamp of the amount for the whole term.

LAW OF LICENSES OR PATENTS (1869).

Art. 1. The various trades and professions are divided into eleven categories, for the payment of Patents for 1869, as follows:

Category 1. First class, $50,000; second class, $25,000; third class, $15,000. This category comprises banks, gas company, and houses exclusively occupied in discounting.

Category 2. First class, $12,000; second class, $8,000; third class, $5,000. This category comprises houses of importation and consignment, whether they keep goods in Custom-house deposit or have private stores, or receive goods despatched direct; it also includes saladeros, houses that export produce, insurance companies, and agencies of every kind.

Category 3. First class, $8,000; second class, $5,000; third class, $3,000. This category comprises mills, wholesale shops of every kind, hotels, public lodging houses, markets, and travelling huxters who sell liquor.

Category 4. First class, $5,000; second class, $3,000; third class, $2,000. This category comprises private hospitals, undertakers, graserias, drug stores, jewellery shops, clothing marts, theatres, auction marts, steamboat agencies, and bazaars for the sale of articles of luxury.

Category 5. First class, $3,000; second class, $2,000; third class, $1,500. This category includes shops or stores by wholesale and retail, wine merchants, furniture marts, newspaper offices, consignees of produce and cattle from the country, breweries, carriage builders, auctioneers, coal and timber yards, billiard manufacturers or retailers.

Category 6. First class, $2,500; second class, $1,500; third class, $1,000. This category comprises ship brokers, produce barracas with presses, coach yards, waggon factories, machine depots, ship chandlers, shipbuilding yards, fondas, taverns, and coffee houses. Category 7. First class, $2,000; second class, $1,000; third class, $700; fourth class, $500. This category comprises photographers, dentists, retail shops for dry goods and groceries, gunsmiths, upholsteries, lamp shops, saddleries, factories of soap, chocolate, tiles, oil, macaroni, &c., and tan yards; also shops of hardware, musical instruments, pictures and mirrors, printing offices, public gardens, confectionary shops, ready-made clothing shops, military outfitters, agencies of all kinds, millinery shops, distilleries, piano stores, foundries, cigar shops, whaleboat offices, barracas without presses, and all lottery vendors who are not invalids or above 60 years of age. Category 8. First class, $1,000. This category comprises lawyers, physicians, surgeons, notaries public, accountants, architects, and master builders.

Category 9. First class, $800; second class, $500; third class, $300. This category includes land surveyors, haberdashers, apothecaries, watchmakers, silversmiths, hatters, shoemakers, tinsmiths, cuttlers, coopers, combmakers, blacksmiths, carpenters, dyers, stone cutters, chair makers, house painters, guitar makers, huxters, sail makers, mattrass makers, charcoal sellers, attorneys, brokers, midwives, sewing machine workers, lace makers, coffin makers, baling presses, plumbers, turners, hair dressers, bakers, livery stables, peep shows, broom and basket makers, booksellers, window blind makers, coach offices, tinkers, laundries, chiropodists, opticians, &c. Category 10. First class $450. This category comprises weighers, measurers, pilots, bleeders, veterinary surgeons, engravers, painters, paper and bell-hangers.

Category 11. First class, 300$. This category comprises organ grinders, fiddlers, fan-makers, book-binders, huxters, piano-tuners, clothes cleaners, stucco-workers, and all others not specified in any of the above categories.