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system of sovereign Currency in Hong Kong which is practically confined to Government transactions and which leads to much inconvenience if not to positive abuses, (as some of the papers seem to show) to the profit obtainable under this system from paying in one currency and being paid in another, – and that the Currency law ought to be assimilated as proposed by His Lordship, to the Dollar system of the community public accounts, taxes, and Salaries.
We did not object to the suggestion to afford them Sterling salaries, and Sterling obligations generally being converted into Dollars at 4/2 to the Dollar. – But His Grace has been unable to concur in the proposition to abolish every legal tender except the silver dollar. He is not prepared to assume that the Government and the public of the Colony will not be put to inconvenience if the Currency of other coins is legalised at fixed rates for purposes of small change.