November 13, 1909.]
HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE
COUNCIL.
A meeting of the Hongkong Legislative Council was held on Thursday in the Council Chamber.
The following were present:- HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR, SIR FREDERICK JOHN DEALTRY LUGARD, K.C.M.G., C.B., D.S.O.
HIS EXCELLENCY MAJOR-GENERAL R G BROADWOOD, C.B., A.D.C. (General Officer Commanding).
Hon. Mr. F. A. HAZELAND (Attorney- General).
Hon. Mr. A. M. THOMSON (Colonial Trea- surer).
Hon. Mr. P. N. H. JONES (Director of Public Works).
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
Public Health and Buildings Ordinances, 1903-| 09, with reference to the prevention of mosquito breeding.
The DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS seconded, and the motion was agreed to.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY moved that the approval of the Council be given to bye- laws made under section 16 of the Public Health and Buildings Ordinances, 1903-09, with regard to slaughter-houses and slaughter of animals.
The DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS seconded, and the motion was agreed to.
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turn out to be a ridiculous mistake on our part. This only shows that the inhabitauts of a country in which wealth is fairly widespread have difficulty in appreciating the currency needs of a country rich naturally but so thickly populated that the vast majority are very poor. This is important to remember, and it is some- times forgotten in discussing the local currency problem. As I have said I do not propose to discuss it now. Local currency problems have been to the fore ever since the birth of the Colony, and they are not likely to be solved by ex- haustive and exhausting speeches delivered in one THE COINAGE PROBLEM.
afternoon. Moreover, it is not really necessary, The following resolution was standing in to the practical purpose I have in view, that Hon. Sir F. H. MAY, K.C.M.G., (Colonial | the name of the Hon Mr. Stewart:- "That the Council should endorse an opinion which Secretary).
in the opinion of this Council the issue may be regarded as academic. I am only of a new subsidiary coinage convertible at par concerned to elicit an expression of opinion would not be successful unless the use of all upon the merits of the proposed scheme other subsidiary coins were prohibited in the as а whole. On the occasion of its Colony, and that, in the circumstances, it is un-promulgation your Excellency said that the desirable to deal with the matter except as part Government would consider it. Doubtless you of a comprehensive scheme of local currency have done so. reform."
If, after consideration, the Government does not intend to carry out the hon. member's recommendations, it appears to me to be desirable in the public interest that a statement to that effect should be made. For this reason. Part of the scheme being to redeem the existing coiu circulating or held in the Colony, obviously, if the belief were to gain ground that the scheme had any chance of being adopted, our coins would tend to flow back into the Colduy in inconvenient quantities, with the result that, eventually, in the case of nothing being done, they would still fur- ther depreciate. To prevent this the Government, if they have no intention of redeeming at par the coins held locally, should say so. that it is important to dissipate a possible mis- The belief
leading idea, calculated to encourage speculation, is my main reason for bringing forward this resolution
Hon. Mr. A. W. BREWIN (Registrar-General). Hon. Mr. F. J. BADELEY (Capt. Superinten- dent of Police).
Hon. Dr. Ho KAI, M.B., C.M.G.
Hon. Mr. E. OSBORNE.
Hon. Mr. E. A. HEWETT.
Hon. Mr. MURRAY STEWART.
Hon. Mr. W. J. GRESSON.
Hon. Mr. WEI YUK, C.M.G.
Mr. C. CLEMENTI (Clerk of Councils).
MINUTES.
The minutes of the last meeting were read existing subsidiary coinage eirculating outside of
and confirmed.
CONGRATULATIONS TO SIR F. H. MAY, HIS EXCELLENCY-Gentlemen,-Before pro- ceeding with the business of the day, I propose to read to the Council the telegram which I received from the Secretary of State. It is as follows:
"It gives me pleasure to inform you that His Majesty has been graciously pleased to approve of conferring the Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George upon Mr. May."
(Applause.) This news has already been made public in the Press, but I take this op- portunity of reading this telegram to the Council in order that I may place on the records of the Legislative Council the fact that the oldest-with one exception-member of the Council here present has been awarded this honour by His Majesty, and I am sure that I voice the feeling of every member of this Council and of the Colony at large when I say that no honour conferred on this occasion by the King in any part of the Empire has been better deserved than the one of which we are taking note to-day. (Applause.)
Hon. Mr. STEWART said, in moving the resolution:-Your Excellency, in speaking to the resolution of which I gave notice at dur last meeting I shall not detain the Council long I propose to do little more than indicate my reason for bringing it forward. Manifestly it refers to the scheme for the issue of a new subsidiary coinage propounded by an unofficial ...member in the debate on the Estimates--a proposal to repudiate after certain date all the
the Colony; to redeem the amount circulating or held in the Colony on the same date; and to issue a new subsidiary coin, convertible at par to any extent, but only legal tender up to two dollars; these coins to compete for public favour with those issued from the Canton Mint, the circulation of which in the Colony was not to be prohibited. Hitherto I have held with those who consider repudiation unjustifiable, redemption impracticable, and prohibition impolitic. The way the hon. member put the case for his contention, that we are not bound to redeem, shook the first of these opinions a little, but by now it has resettled in its old foundations. Having thought over the mat- ter, I consider that the proposal to repudiate, however attractively it may be is, after all,
presented, indefensible; and further that, in any case, new subsidiary coins would not cure the inconveniences at present com- plained of, unless the concurrent use of Chinese subsidiary coins were prohibited. In other words, I think that the scheme propounded would not work. It is here that opinion differs. On the one hand it is contended by the hon. member that the fact of his proposed new coin being convertible at par would cause it to drive out the competing Chinese coins. On the other hand it is held that the Chinese coin would still be in demand among the poorer section of the population, who would always prefer to receive in exchange for a dollar, say, for the sake of argument, eleven Chinese ten cent pieces instead of ten British pieces. It is this view of the probabilities which the first part of the resolution asserts. The point is debateable. I don't propose to discuss it. It is impossible to do so except at great length. And the hope of reaching finality is too slight to justify that. Currency questions are perhaps the most intricate of all the questions about which people freely dogmatise, and legislation dealing with them is notoriously apt to lead to most unexpected results. Ours are peculiarly intricate owing to the complex relation created by contact between ancient and modern conditions of life, between two distinct and well defined states of civilization, with standards of wealth so far apart that the unit of currency of the one is regarded as subsidiary coin by the other. I need not remind the Council that the notes issued by the Provincial Government Treasury in Canton are payable in 20 cent pieces. I need not remind you that the shares of the Kwangtung section of the Canton-Hankow Railway are issued in exchange for 20 cent pieces, that, in fact, the capital of that great undertaking is 20 cent pieces -a fact
so astonishing to the English mind that when the local Branch of the China Association advised the London Committee of it, the Chairman was afraid to mention it at the Foreign Office lest it should
The COLONIAL SECRETARY-Sir, I beg to express my appreciation of the terms in which your Excellency has been good enough to refer to the bonour which has been conferred upon
me.
CONDOLENCES WITH JAPAN. HIS EXCELLENCY-I have also to inform the Council that immediately on receipt of the news of the dastardly outrage by which one of the foremost statesmen of Japan was deprived of his life at the hand of an assassin I telegraphed the sympathy of this Colony with our ally on their great loss. I received in reply the following telegram from His Majesty's Ambassador at Tokyo:--
"The Japanese Government desire me to convey to you, their deep gratitude for the sympathetic message with respect to the lamented death of Prince Ito."
FINANCIAL MINUTES. The COLONIAL SECRETARY, by command of His Excellency the Governor, laid on the table Financial Minute No. 51, and moved that it be referred to the Finance Committee.
The COLONIAL TREASURER seconded, and the resolution was agreed to.
FINANCIAL.
The COLONIAL SECRETARY, by command of H. E. the Governor, laid on the table the report of the Finance Committee, (No. 17) and moved its adoption.
The COLONIAL TREASURER seconded, and the motion was agreed to.
BYELAWS.
The COLONIAL SECRETARY moved that the approval of the Council be given to the byelaw made under sub-section 35 of section 16 of the
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particularly well designed for the purpose, and, if I must confess that it is perhaps not the statement which I hope to elicit is made, I shall be willing to withdraw it. suggesting that, if anything is done, our local The latter part, currency ought to be dealt with as a whole by indicates that I am not opposed to change, some comprehensive scheme of reform, at least
as such. So far I have been against most schemes of currency reform put forward; not because they involved change, but be- cause I was not persuaded that the changes proposed were for the better. For in- stance, I did not agree with the proposal made pence, as the currency of the Colony. That seven years ago to adopt pounds, shillings and
proposal was not new, any more than sub- sequent proposals to "go gold" were Pounds, shillings and ponce were proclaimed legal tender here in 1845, but merchants ignored the Government's theoretical gold standard and wisely continued to conduct their opera- tions in the
currency most
new.
convenient
to China's foreign trade, the fact being that they had no option in the matter if they wanted to see the trade prosper. Those who fondly imagine that currency problems would cease from troubling if only we had a gold standard, should dip back fifty years into the history of the Colony. They might then realise, what the Government eventually realised in the early 'sixties, that the wise thing to do was to adopt a currency of equal value with the currency in which the trade of Canton was being conducted. The Govern- ment of that day realised the identity of this Colony's commercial interests with those of the great trade centre of South China more clearly than many among us would seem to at the present time. It is just as important to realise that commercially we are part of China as to remember that politically we are not, a fact the significance of which, we have just been sharply reminded, is insufficiently appreciated in high places. Realisation of the former fact that commercially we are part and parcel of China leads to a cautious reception of crrency refor proposals based upon the idea tha the time has come for this. Coloay tu tuke independent action. That time wil uot have come, it seems to me, nutil the present renewed, prospect of the establishment. of a uniform currency throughout China shall have faded. The hope that in exchange for p rmission to raise the Custom duties the Con trai Government will discover a strong reason ] for strong action, may seem somewhat faint, but I
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