been exhausted.
6. It is hardly possible to estimate the profits of the Mint. It depends on the amount of seigniorage which is levied on the Coinage of Silver. This amount is not yet settled and it will be ultimately decided by the local Govt. It also depends on the amount of Silver which is sent in for the purpose of being converted into dollars.
See Hermle.
If the seigniorage is put at 2 1⁄2 percent, & the mint kept fully employed the profits may be put at about £50,000. This is assuming that £80,000 in Notes on state, £42,000 that the Imperial Government are struck every day.
£94,000 will gain about £37,000 (which is now lost in exchange), by introducing the dollar into circulation.
7. To verify the accounts of "Admiralty & War Office Expenditure" I do not quite understand what is referred to here. The Admiralty keeps no separate account of the cost of services performed for the Colonial Govt.
The number of troops in Hongkong has varied so much that no reliable estimates could be formed. Within the last six years the average number of troops has been about 1,478 Rank & File & their cost would appear from the enclosed return to have been. The Admiralty estimate the cost of 2 battalions fully equipped at £8,676 per annum.