3.
MAO decided to fix the 10th instant as the date for bringing the Stamp Ordinance, No. 12 of last year, into operation. Your Grace will perceive from the enclosed proceedings that I bore in mind the expectations held out to the Bank's last duty.
Vide Governor to Secretary of State of last year of reducing the weight on Bank Notes by 3/4 of 1 per cent per annum. That duty had already formed the subject of a correspondence between Mr. Gordon, Chairman of the Oriental Bank Corporation, and Earl Carnarvon, and in despatch No. 29 of the 27th February last, Your Grace will find a full report on the topics adverted to by Mr. Gordon. I have to add now that I see no reason to change the opinion expressed in that despatch as to the improbability of the note circulation of the Bank's being contracted in consequence of the operation of the Stamp Ordinance, so as to cause public inconvenience.
From the return, which I have furnished, of the average amount of the note circulation in the Colony, it appeared that its amount for the five Banks then existing had been for the eight previous months $1,362,885, the lowest circulation being that of the Oriental Bank, the amount of whose notes did not exceed $100,000 in November last year.