88
:
rised limit of $200,000 were during the first 3 months of
1895 kept in the Hong-Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation
to meet the same abnormal call on the public funds, from
April to end of July the sums in the Hong-Kong & Shanghai
Bank were kept within or about the limit of $200,000 but
from the end of July to the end of October this limit in
the Hong-Kong & Shanghai Bank was exceeded owing, so far
as I can ascertain, to the sale of subsidiary coins. During
the same period no transfer was made to the Chartered Bank
of the unauthorised excess in the Hong-Kong & Shanghai Bank
because Crown Agents'arafts were maturing to an extent that
would speedily reduce the balance in the Hong-Kong & Shang-
hai Bank within the authorised limit, and a temporary trans-
fer from the one bank to the other carried no practical ad-
vantage. Subsequent temporary excessive balances in the Hong-
Kong & Shanghai Bank and the abstention from transferring
any portion of such balances to the Chartered Bank were due
to the same causes as those just related. I may point out
that Lord Knutsford's despatch No.222 of 10th.October, 1890,
does not as a fact insist on the division of Government bu-
siness between the two local banks, but merely directs that
the amount of Government Funds in the Hong-Kong & Shanghai
Bank shall not exceed $125,000 and the amounts in each of
the other Banks shall not exceed $75,000.
(3.) Turning now to the second head of inquiry
viz., why the Praya Fund Current Account has never been
Ith vil
transferred