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: the benefit which will be derived by Commercial Interests severally - and the loss to Imperial Funds which must severely result, from the operations of the mint consequent upon the depreciation of the market value of the Dollar in Europe.
It would further appear from the Report of a Commission of Inquiry appointed by the Governor that they were not of opinion that there was much prospect of financial success, but they were averse to any sudden closing of the Mint.
The Governor in submitting this Report states his opinion that the arguments which were in favour of the Establishment of the Mint in the first instance, were based on exceptional circumstances which it is not probable will ever occur again.
He forwards statements showing the actual cost of the Establishment and the total amount of profit which has been derived from it - and contends that with the annual contribution which the Colony has been called on to make in aid of the military expenditure, it is an impossibility that the mint can be maintained out of local Funds.
Sir Hercules Robinson, on the other hand, shows very ably that the mint was not established without full consideration. He disputes the reasoning of the Governor as to the prospects of success for the future, and maintains that the want of it at present arises from exceptional causes, and that those which led to its establishment were not of an exceptional character.