My Lords have arrived at the conclusion that it will be expedient to give effect to the recommendation of the Governor and Council of Hong Kong, that the currency of the Colony should be confined to dollars and cents, and the Accounts of the Colonial Treasury be made conformable thereto.
Their Lordships, however, feel some difficulty regarding the course of proceeding which should be adopted for this purpose.
It was intimated to this Board by the communication from the Colonial Office of 28th October last, that the Governor of Hong Kong had been instructed to consider with the Executive Council, and to report what provisions of a local Ordinance should be on the subject of the currency of coins and legal tender, in lieu of the repeal of the existing Proclamations regulating the Currency, and the substitution of a local enactment; and their Lordships were informed that Lord Lytton postponed expressing any opinion until the receipt of an answer to that reference.
The despatch of Sir John Bowring's, however, not only is silent on the subject of the detailed proceedings to be adopted, but the minutes which he forwards from members of the Executive Council have led Their Lordships to doubt whether those officers duly...