This Act may be cited as the Customs Duties Amendment Act, 1909, and it shall form part of and be read together with the Customs Duties Act, 1908.

This Act shall be deemed to have come into operation on the twenty-fourth day of November, nineteen hundred and nine, and to have been in operation since the commencement of that day.

On all dutiable goods imported into New Zealand or entered for home consumption after the coming into operation of this Act, in addition to all other duties of Customs or excise payable on those goods under the Customs Duties Act, 1908, the Customs Law Act, 1908, or the Tobacco Act, 1908, there shall be payable, at the time when those duties are payable, a further duty of Customs or excise as the case may be (to be called a surtax) of one per centum of the amount of each of those duties respectively in the case of tobacco, cigars, and cigarettes, and of two and a half per centum of the amount of each of those duties respectively in the case of all other dutiable goods.

This Act shall not extend to the Cook Islands.

Nothing in this Act shall affect the existing reciprocal treaty between the Government of New Zealand and the Governments of certain colonies in South Africa referred to in section eight of the Customs Duties Act, 1908.

The resolution of the House of Representatives relating to primage duty, passed on the tenth day of November, nineteen hundred and nine, shall be deemed to have taken effect and to have had the force of law according to the tenor of that resolution, and to have so continued until the commencement of the twenty-fourth day of November, nineteen hundred and nine, and no longer.

No refund shall be made to or recoverable by any person in respect of any duty of Customs or excise paid before the passing of this Act in conformity with the resolution referred to in the last preceding section, or in conformity with the resolution of the House of Representatives relating to surtax and passed on the twenty-third day of November, nineteen hundred and nine, and all such duty shall be deemed to have been lawfully collected and paid in accordance with the Customs Duties Act, 1908, the Customs Law Act, 1908, and the Tobacco Act, 1908.

The duty imposed by this Act shall cease to be chargeable after the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and eleven, in respect of any goods imported into New Zealand or entered for home consumption after that day.

Section six of the Customs Duties Act, 1908, is hereby amended by inserting, after the word “agency” in subsection six, the words “or with the consent of the Minister in any other case.”