PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :--
CO. 882
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH---NOT TO
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from the issue of them there seems no longer to be any good reason why that profit should not go to Labuan rather than to the British North Borneo Company, Limited. I would suggest, therefore, that so long as Labuan is administered separately from the Straits Settlements, arrangements should be made for the Colony to obtain Straits subsidiary coins on whatever terms may be considered fair.
4. Some such arrangement (vide my letter 236/1906) appears to have been in force between the Government and the British North Borneo Company, Limited, prior to 1890, and in respect of copper coins. The arrangement appears to have fallen through on the transfer of the Colony. Subsequently, in consequence, I believe, of a rise in the price of copper, the British North Borneo Company, Limited, issued a nickel subsidiary coinage. It has always been most unpopular. The profit on it is probably greater than that on a copper coinage, though I believe that the price of copper is now going down again.
5. The Colonial Treasury contains at present $1,893 worth of British North Borneo nickel coinage (5 cents and 2 cent and I cent) taken over, on the resump- tion of the Colony, as part of the Treasury balance. The public do not seem to like this coinage, and I see no prospect of putting it into circulation. If any change in the coinage Order in Council is considered advisable it would perhaps be possible to arrange with British North Borneo Company, Limited, for the return of these coins. If no change is to be made, I think the Colony should receive some return for the facilities which it gives to the British North Borneo Company, Limited, in respect of this coinage.
6. I am afraid it is not possible to estimate the amount of British North Borneo subsidiary coinage in circulation in Labuan, and, as it is only legal tender up to 81, I do not know whether it would be obligatory on the Government to redeem it all, in the event of a change being decided on.
7. Apparently if any change is considered advisable it must be effected by an Order of His Majesty in Council.
To the Secretary to
His Excellency the High Commissioner, Singapore.
I have, &c.,
S. MCARTHUR,
Colonial Secretary.
At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the 11th day of July, 1905.
Present,
THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY IN COUNCIL.
Whereas by virtue of the law repealed by this Order certain silver dollars and other silver coins, and coins of copper or mixed metal are legal tender in Our Colony
of Labuan :
And whereas it appears to Us, by the advice of Our Privy Council, that it is expedient to repeal the said law and to make a law respecting the coins which are to be the subject of contract and to constitute legal tender in Our said Colony:
Now, therefore, We, by and with the advice of Our Privy Council, and by virtue of all powers vested in Us in that behalf, do hereby ordain and enact as follows: And the Lords Commissioners of Our Treasury, and the Right Honour- able Alfred Lyttelton, K.C., one of Our Principal Secretaries of State, are to give the requisite directions herein accordingly.
11.) The Straits Settlements silver dollar of the standard weight and millesimal fineness specified in the First Schedule to this Order shall be the standard coin of Our Colony of Labuan, in this Order referred to as the Colony.
(2) Every contract, sale, payment, bill, note, instrument, and security for money, and every transaction, dealing, matter and thing whatever relating to money, or involving the payment of or the liability to pay any money, shall, in the absence of express agreement to the contrary, be held to be made, executed, entered into, done, and had in the Colony, according to the standard coin of the Colony.
21.) If the Governor of the Colony at any time requests that any new subsidiary coins of less value than the dollar, whether of silver, nickel, copper or mixed metal, be coined, and the Commissioners of Our Treasury and a Secretary of
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State approve such request, those new coins may be so coined under the direction of the Master of Our Mint, or at one of Our Mints in British India.
(2.) Such new coins shall have either the same impressions as the coins specified in the Second Schedule to this Order (in this Order referred to as existing coins) or such other impressions as may be approved of by the Master of Our Mint and by a Secretary of State.
(3.) Any such new coin may be of the same denomination as any existing sub- sidiary coin or of a different denomination.
(4.) Every such new coin, if of silver, shall be of the same fineness as the existing silver coins, and of a weight bearing the same proportion to the weights of those coins as the denomination of the new coin bears to the denominations of the existing coins.
(5.) As regards both the existing coins and the new coins the remedy of fine- nese shall be three-thousandths, and the remedy of weight shall be such that the gross deviation in weight on such number of coins of any given denomination as amount to the value of a dollar shall not exceed that allowed on the Straits Settle- ments dollar.
3. (1.) A tender of payment of money in the Colony, if made in the standard coin or in any coins specified in the Second Schedule to this Order, shall, if the coins have not been illegally dealt with, and, if of silver, have not become diminished in weight by wear or otherwise, so as to be of less weight than the weight in that behalf specified in the Schedules to this Order as the least current weight, be a legal
tender :-
(a) in the case of dollars for the payment of any amount;
(b) in the case of the other silver coins for the payment of an amount not
exceeding two dollars, but for no greater amount;
(c) in the case of coins of nickel copper or mixed metal, for the payment of an amount not exceeding one dollar, but for no greater amount.
(2.) Each coin shall be a legal tender only for the amount of its denomination. (3.) If any new coins are coined, this article shall, after the date fixed by the Governor in a proclamation made with the approval of the Commissioners of Our Treasury and a Secretary of State, setting forth in a schedule the same particulars with respect to each coin as are set forth in the Second Schedule to this Order, apply to the new coins as if the schedule to the proclamation were added to that Second Schedule.
(4.) For the purpose of this Order, a coin shall be deemed to have been illegally dealt with where the coin has been impaired, diminished, or lightened otherwise than by fair wear and tear, or has been defaced by having any name, word, device, or number stamped or engraved thereon, whether the coin has or has not been thereby diminished or lightened.
4. On the commencement of this Order the Order in Council of the 2nd day of February, 1895, regulating the currency of the Colony, and all other laws regulating legal tender in the Colony shall cease to be in force.
5. Nothing in this Örder, nor any repeal of law by this Order, shall affect any liability incurred, contract made, or other thing done before the commencement of the Order.
6. In this Order-
The expression "Governor" means the Governor of the Colony, and includes the officer for the time being administering the Government of the Colony.
The expression "Secretary of State" means one of Our Principal Secre
taries of State.
Words in the singular include the plural, and words in the plural include
the singular.
7. This Order may be cited as the Labuan (Coinage) Order, 1905.
8. This Order shall come into operation on such date as may be fixed by the Governor of the Colony by Proclamation, and that day is in this Order referred to as the commencement of the Order.
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A. W. FITZROY.
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SCHEDULES.
First Schedule.