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SIR,
(15.)
The Earl of Derby to the Officer Administering the Government.
DOWNING STREET,
22nd February, 1883.
I have the honour to convey to you Her Majesty's gracious confirmation and allowance of the Ordinance No. 21 of 1882, of the Legislature of Hongkong, entitled The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Ordinance, Amendment Ordinance, 1882, a transcript of which accompanied your despatch No. 276 of the 20th of December
last.
The Officer Administering the Government of
HONGKONG.
I have, &c.,
DERBY.
MY LORD,
(16.)
Governor Sir G. F. Bowen to the Earl of Derby.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, HONGKONG, 22nd November, 1883.
I have the honour to enclose for Your Lordship's consideration some correspondence that has recently passed between this Government and certain public Departments and Companies, recommending an increased issue of One Dollar Notes in this Colony.
2. This subject appears to me to be one of pressing importance. The present issue is quite inadequate, and the silver (chiefly Mexican) dollars that are current in the Colony are so mutilated, and so liable to be counterfeited and debased by the Chinese, that the possession of them is nearly always accompanied with loss.
3. In the transactions of the larger firms, which transact their business through their compradores, the present state of things may not be very seriously felt; but to householders, soldiers, sailors and servants, the present state of the dollar currency is a constant source both of serious inconvenience and of positive loss. The memorial from five Companies at Hongkong, and the reports of the Naval and Military Authorities, which I enclose, show clearly the difficulties which they experience in the proper payment of their men; and I am confident that Your Lordship will not object to any reasonable means by which their position can be
*ameliorated.