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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]

Stamp, Land Transfer, Etc., Departments

Stamp, Land Transfer, Etc., Departments

The revenue from the Stamp Department is a considerable item in the income of the Colony, being upwards of £677,235 per annum, which sum includes the receipts from the Postal and Telegraph Department. Registration fees provide another £50,000 in round numbers, The Department is under the control of an officer who combines the duties of Secretary to the Department, Controller of Legacy Duties, Deputy Commissioner of Stamps, and Registrar of Joint Stock Companies, with a staff of twenty-one other officials, stationed in the chief cities in the Colonies. There are also ten District Land Registrars who are, in most cases, Deputy-Commissioners of Stamps, and through them all the business connected with the transfers, mortgages, Crown grants, applications or other processes connected with land are transacted. All deeds have to be registered in this Department, and during the year ending the 31st of March, 1895, 10,321 were so dealt with, the fees in the same amounting to £10,886. From the official returns of this office, it is shown that the total amount of money secured by mortgage under the Land Transfer Acts in the Colony on the 31st of March, 1895, was over thirty page 166 and a half millions. The Stamp Act is an all-embracing revenue, and hardly any transaction in the Colony where the transfer of property is concerned, is possible without a contribution to the revenue through its operation.

The Hon. W. P. Reeves, Commissioner of Stamp Duties, is in charge (see page 44).

Mr. Charles Alfred St. George Hickson, Secretary and Deputy Commissioner of Stamps, Registrar of Joint Stock Companies, Secretary for Lands and Deeds, etc., was born at sea in the Irish Channel in 1844. His father, Captain John Annesley Hickson, who belonged to County Kerry, Ireland, was an officer of the 73rd Regiment, and in 1848 brought out a company of pensioners per ship “Ann,” Captain Walker, to Auckland, and, settling at Otahuhu, he remained until his death in 1858. Mr. Hickson was educated chiefly by his father, but completed his education at the Auckland Wesley College. On the death of his father, Mr. Hickson removed to Otago, where, until the age of twenty-one, he was engaged in sheepfarming. In 1865 he entered the service of the General Government as a clerk and interpreter in the Native Department, having learned the Maori language when a boy. For some nine months Mr. Hickson was stationed at Maketu, in the Bay of Plenty, when he was transferred from the Native Department to that of the Treasury at Auckland, and was afterwards employed at the Compensation Court in the Waikato. On the creation of the Stamp Department in 1867, he was appointed to a clerkship in that department at Napier. Two years later he was transferred to Wellington, where he rose in 1874 to the position of chief clerk and accountant, and in 1890 to his present important office. Socially, as officially, Mr. Hickson has always been active and popular. For
Mr. Charles Alfred St. George Hickson

Photo by Wrigglesworth and Binns.

over a quarter of a century he has been a prominent member of St. Paul's Choir, and for a good part of that time was a leading tenor soloist. He has also taken active interest in the Harmonic and other musical societies of Wellington. In his younger days he was enthusiastic in yachting, boating, and similar pastimes. Two of Mr. Hickson's sons are well known in Wellington banking, insurance, boating and football circles, having risen to positions of importance in those branches.

Mr. Harry Owen Williams, Accountant and Chief Clerk in the Stamp Department, Assistant Registrar of Joint Stock Companies, Registrar of Building Societies and Industrial and Provident Societies, is a son of Dr. Williams, of Oamaru. Born in Otago, Mr. Williams was educated privately in that Provincial district. He entered the public service in 1879 as clerk in the Lands and Deeds Registry Department in Invercargill. Subsequently he was transferred to Dunedin, and after some time he was appointed Deputy Registrar of Deeds in Invercargill. Mr. Williams was next removed to Nelson as Deputy Commissioner of Stamps and Registrar of Deeds. In 1892 he was appointed to the offices which he now fills.

Mr. William Henry Shore, Custodian and Issuer of Stamps, is a grandson of the late Mr. William Shore, of Sale, near Manchester, England. He was born in the colony of Victoria, and was taken Home by his father in 1863, and educated at the Altrincham Grammar School, near Manchester. He arrived in Wellington by the ship “St. Leonard's” in 1875, and after seven years' experience in the Colony with Messrs. Thynne, Linton page 167 and Co., of Foxton, and Messrs. T. Kennedy Macdonald and Co. of Wellington, he entered the Civil Service as clerk in the Property Tax Department. In 1884 Mr. Shore was transferred to the Stamp Department, and has remained in that branch of the Service up to the time of writing. He was appointed to his office as Custodian in June, 1892. Mr. Shore has long taken an interest in cricket, and is a member of the Rivals Cricket Club. He is a fair bat, and played for the first elevens of the United. Bohemian, and Phooenix Clubs some ten years ago. He was prominent as secretary and treasurer of the Parliamentary Recess Tennis Club for about four years. In 1880 he was married to Miss Howe, daughter of the late Mr. Charles Howe, of Wellington, and has two daughters and one son.

Mr. Charles Edward Howe, Chief Stamper of the Stamp Department, has for over a quarter of a century been employed, in this important branch of the public service. His father, the late Mr. Charles Howe, was one of the old settlers who arrived in Port Nicholson in the early forties. The subject of this notice was born in Wellington in 1851, and received his education in Williamstown, Victoria, whither his parents had removed. Returning to the Colony, Mr. Howe entered the government service in 1868, as assistant to the chief stamper (imprest work), and early in the following year, when only some six or seven months in the office, was promoted to the responsible post which he still holds.

Other Officers.

Record and Receiving Clerk—J. P. Murphy.

Clerk—J. Murray.