officially communicated to the said commissioners, as to any one or more of the said claims, they shall forthwith execute and deliver to each claimant, whose claim has received the approval of the Secretary, a certificate, signed by them, and stating the amount of duties which the claimant has paid, and is entitled to have refunded to him, and the amount he has secured to be paid, and is entitled to have remitted upon his bonds: Provided, That no such certificate shall be delivered to any claimant, his agent or attorney, or to his order, until he, or some person on his behalf, shall have executed and delivered to the collector of the customs for the port of New York, a bond, with sureties to the satisfaction of the said collector, in a penalty of double the sums to be refunded or remitted, as shown on said certificate, and conditioned for the repayment, to the United States, of the whole amount refunded or remitted to such claimant, with interest from the date of the said bond, in case it shall thereafter be made to appear that the goods upon which the duties so remitted or refunded were chargeable, were not in fact destroyed at the conflagration aforesaid.Proviso. Provided, That in all cases when the applicant for relief under this act shall have had bonds other than those given for duties on goods destroyed by said fire, suspended under the act entitled “An act for the relief of the sufferers by fire in the city of New York,”1836, ch. 42. approved nineteenth March eighteen hundred and thirty-six, the amount of twenty-four per cent. on the amount of duties secured by such bonds shall be deducted form the sum which would otherwise be remitted to such applicants under this act.
Certificates to be received in payment of duties.Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That upon the presentation by any person to the collector of New York, of any certificate so issued by the said commissioners, showing that a remission is to be made upon any unpaid bond given to secure duties, and then in the hands of the said collector, it shall be his duty to make the requisite endorsement upon the said bond or bonds, and likewise so far to cancel the said certificate by a proper endorsement thereon as his endorsement upon the bond or bonds shall require, and so far as any such certificate shall show that duties paid are to be refunded, the said collector of the port of New York shall receive such certificate in lieu of money for the payment of duties at all times endorsing upon the certificate the amount of duties thus cancelled by its presentation;Certificates, after being cancelled, shall be transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury. and as fast as the said certificates shall be thus fully cancelled the said collector shall retain and transmit [them] to the Secretary of the Treasury to be by him placed upon the files of the Department, with the statement from which they were issued, and the testimony upon which the duties are refunded or remitted.
Proportionate remission on packages only partially destroyed.Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That in all cases where any article or package, as imported, shall have been partially and not entirely destroyed by the said conflagration, the remission or refunding of duties upon such article or package shall be in proportion to the destruction by the said fire, as that proportion shall be ascertained and certified to the said commissioners by the appraisers for the port of New York; but this section shall not be so construed as to extend to any merchandise or property destroyed or damaged other than in the original and unbroken packages as imported.
A clerk may be employed―his salary.Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That the said commissioners may employ a clerk who shall be paid for his services out of any unappropriated money in the Treasury such reasonable compensation as the Secretary of the Treasury shall allow, which payment the said Secretary is hereby authorized and directed to make, not to exceed the rate of two thousand dollars per annum.
Approved, July 7, 1838.