xliv   DEPARTMENT OF FIOrd X CE—I s''UR_1 VCE BRANCH.

3. Upon all companies doing the business of accident and guarantee insurance within the province, the sum of twenty-five dollars.

4. Upon all companies doing the business of trust or loan or building companies or associations within the province, one hundred and fifty dollars each.

5. Upon every telegraph or other company working a telegraph line for the use of the public in the province, two hundred and fifty dollars.

6. Upon all banks doing business in this province, whether their organization and head office is in this Province or not, the sum of fifty dollars, if such bank has not more than one office or place of business within the province.

7. Upon all banks doing business in this province, whether their organization and head office is in this province or not, the sum of one hundred dollars, if such bank has more than one office or place of business within the Province.

2. Such taxes as far as respects the corporations or associations mentioned in subsection 1 to 7 inclusive, shall he payable by such corporations and associations semi-annually on the first juridical day in the mouths of June and December in each year, commencing on the first juridical day of June following the passage hereof, on which day the first semi-annual payment of the taxes aforesaid shall be due and payable by such companies to the Provincial Secretary of the province.

3. Every tax imposed by this Act shall, on the date on which it becomes due, become a Crown debt, and if not paid on such date, may be recovered with legal interest thereon, and full costs of suit by un action brought in the name of Her Majesty by the Pros incial Secretary of the province, in the Supreme Court of .Judicature of the province—every such action to be tried without a jury.

4. ('osts shall not be awarded or adjudged against Her Majesty in any action instituted in Her Majesty's name by the Provincial Secretary under this Act, but on the recommendation of the court, the Provincial Secretary may, in his discretion, pay to the party inn favour of which judgement has been rendered, the costs to which he may deem such party equitably entitled.

5. The taxes imposed by this Act shall form part of the revenue of the province, and any expenses incurred in carrying out this Act may, from time to time, be paid out of such revenue.

LEGAL DECISDONS.

The following notes of recent legal decisions by Canadian courts will be found useful for reference :-

1.—INSURANCE FOR THE BENEFIT OF -WIVES AND CHILDREN, &e.

(a.) In 1869, Rees insured his life. ender the provisions of 29 Victoria (2) chapter 17, insurance payable to his wife should she survive him, or, failing her, for the benefit of his children. In 1878 the Act 41-4.2 Victoria (2_), chapter 13, was passed, which enables a person who has effected an insurance for the benefit of his wife, or of his wife and children, etc., to revoke the benefit to the person or persons named in the policy and to make a re-apuortionnient, but section 1 excepts rights accrued before the coming into force of the Act, all which rights "shall remain in force and continue to apply.'' By virtue of this Act. Rees, in 1880, executed a document which did not mention his wife in the first paragraph, but merely stated that he desired to revoke the benefit conferred by the insurance upon his children generally. In the second paragraph, how ever, he declared his option that the insurance should be payable to one son named therein (the appellant) and not to his well(. Rees having died in 189.2, the wife, and the son named in the revocation, each asserted a right to the insurance.

Held (reversing the judgment of Davidson, J., R. J. Q. 5 C. S. 2141):—1. The document in question, although faulty in the wording of the first paragraph thereof, nevertheless in the second paragraph sufficiently expressed a revocation of the benefit to the wife.

2. Persons named as beneficiaries in policies issued while the Act 29 Victoria (2), chapter 17, was in force have no accrued or vested right within the meaning of 41–42 Victoria, chapter 13, and the revocation and reappropriation made in 1880 were valid.

3. In any event, under Art. 1029, C. C., the husband had power to revoke the stipulation for the benefit of the wife, so long as she had not signified her assent thereto. (29th September, 1894. Hughs es. Rees, Les Rapports Judiciaires Officiels de Quebec, Queen's Bench Division, Vol. 3, page 443.)

(b.) A policy upon the life of the plaintiff's deceased husband was issued before his marriage by a foreign benevolent society not incorporated or registered under any Act of Ontario, payable to his mother, who predeceased him, or to his executors. By one of the by-laws of the society it was provided that when the insured married after the date of the policy, it ipso facto became payable to the widow, " unless otherwise ordered after date of such marriage." Under another by-law the policy could be made payable only to a wife, an affianced wife, a blood relation, or a person dependent on