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3. There is nothing in the section to limit the liability of Government timber, though exemptions in favour of Government are found in several other sections of the Act. The prima facie inference is that the Legislature intended to make the section applicable to such timber. The learned Advocate-General, however, contests this inference, and contends that the conviction is bad on three grounds, viz.:

1. Because the Magistrate ought to have held that the provisions of Section 341 as to taking out a license for importing wood are merely ancillary to the provisions of Section 338 as to taking out a license for storing wood and that the exemption in favour of Government in Section 338 applies also to Section 341.
4. The first two grounds appear to me to be clearly untenable. The license mentioned in Section 341 is quite distinct from that mentioned in Section 338. The latter section requires the occupier of every place used for the sale and storage of wood and certain other inflammable materials to take out a license, just as other sections require those who keep livery-stables, slaughter-houses and bake-houses, or who exercise certain dangerous and offensive trades, to take out a license, the object being to give the Municipal authorities the power to control such places in the interest of the public. Section 341, properly understood, is a section which imposes an octroi or town duty under the guise of a license fee. This is manifest from the heavy incidence of the fee and from the proviso in the section for a drawback of nine-tenths of the fee in case the wood is exported, and also from the fact that the president has no discretion to refuse to grant a license. A person may import would under Section 341 without taking it to a place licensed under Section 338, and a person may keep a place under Section 338 without importing under Section 341. I can see no reason for holding that the exemption from control in Section 338 in favour of a place occupied by Government operates to exempt from taxation under Section 341 the person who imports Government wood. Nor can it, with any show of reason, be said, that the exemption provided by Section 174 in favour of Government as regards tolls, extends to the fee or town duty imposed by Section 341. The tolls referred to in Section 174 are those tolls, and those tolls alone, which the Commissioners are authorised to levy eo nomine by Section 170 and which are specified in schedule D of the Act.
8. A Section (328) corresponding to Section 338 of the present City of Madras Municipal Act, existed in the Act of 1878, but it had no section corresponding to Section 341. Strong objections, to a great extent sentimental, were taken by military officers to the payment of a profession tax under the Towns Improvement Act which was then in force in the mufassal Municipalities, and this, together with certain abuses which had occurred in regard to the levy of the tax on Government buildings and lands, led the Legislature to pass Act XI of 1881, the Municipal Taxation Act already referred to, by which the Governor-General in Council was empowered to prohibit the levy of any specified Municipal tax payable (1) by Military Officers, (2) by the Secretary of state for India in Council, on certain terms as to compensating the Municipal authorities. It was after this Act was passed that the present City of Madras Municipal Act, 1884, was passed, and in it we find Section 341 introduced for the first time. No exemption in favour of Government is made in this section. The effect of this section is to impose an octroi or town duty on timber and firewood brought into the City. Six years later a similar duty was imposed by Act I of 1890 (Madras) on all tobacco brought into the City, and again we find no exemption in favour of Government. Looking to the precise manner in which the Government is exempted from payment of certain taxes and fees and to the absence of any such exemption in the case of other taxes and fees, it seems to me that the clear intention of the Legislature was to give exemption in the cases specified, and not to give exemptions in cases not specified. The omission of any exemption in the case of Town duties appears to be intelligible enough, and to be in accordance. with the general policy of the Supreme Indian Legislature as indicated by the Municipal Taxation Act, 1881. Under this Act, Government has the power to prohibit the levy of the tax if it sees fit to do so; but to hold that the Legislature when enacting the City of Madras Municipal Act, 1884, did not mean to make Section 341 applicable to Government, would, in my judgment, be opposed to the manifest intention of the Act, when construed in its natural sense according to accepted canons of interpretation applicable to Indian Stautes, and with reference to the course of legislation in India and the Acts which have from time to time been passed in pari materia.
12. The first two grounds are clearly untenable and present no' difficulty. Section 338 enjoins that yearly licenses should be obtained in respect of every place set apart for the sale or storage (for other than private use) of timber or firewood, &c. by the occupier of such place. The fee and the rate of fee for the issue of such licenses are to be fixed by the Commissioners with the sanction of the Governor in Council under Section 420, and "the president may, as he in his discretion and under such restrictions and regulations as he thinks fit, grant or refuse such license." The proviso to Section 338, exempts from the operation of the section any such place in the occupation or under the control of Government. This Section (338) was practically in force since 1867. But Section 341 was enacted only in 1884 and is in no sense ancillary to, or dependent upon, Section 338. It really imposes octroi duties or town duties on the importation of timber or firewood, the duty being regulated with reference to its weight. The importer is required, on payment of the duty, to obtain a license specifying the place and conditions of storing of the timber or firewood and the President has no discretion to refuse such license. The specification, in the license, of the intended place of storing will enable the Municipal Commissioners to find out if the occupier of such place of storage, if it be not in the occupation or under the control of Government, has obtained the license prescribed by Section 338. The primary object of Section 341 is the levy of import duty and that is entirely independent of Section 338, Incidentally, no doubt, provision is made in Section 341 in view to check the evasion of Section 338 in cases to which that section is applicable. Timber or firewood imported by Government may or may not be stored in a place in the occupation or under the control of Government. It is impossible to connect Section 341 and Section 338 in such a way as to justify the engrafting on the former, of the exemption in favour of Government contained in the latter. exemption in favour of Govern-