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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

9

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

New section inserted after

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17. The following new section to be numbered 15 is inserted after section 14 in the principal Ordinance and the present sections 15, 16, and 17 of the principal the principal Ordinance are renumbered 16, 17, and 18:-

section 14 of

Ordinance.

Prohibi-

tion of

issue of

private

bills or

notes pay-

able to

bearer.

Date of coming

into opera. tion.

15. No person shall draw, accept, make or issue any bill of exchange, promissory note or engagement for the payment of money payable to bearer on demand, or borrow, owe, or take up any sum or sums of money on the bills or notes payable only to bearer on demand of any such person

Provided that cheques or drafts payable to bearer on demand may be drawn on bankers or agents by their customers or constituents in respect of moneys in the hands of these bankers or agents held by them at the disposal of the persons drawing such cheques or drafts.

Any person contravening the provisions of this section shall. on conviction by a Police Court, be punishable with a fine equal to the amount of the bill, note or engagement in respect whereof the offence is committed.

Every prosecution under this section shall be instituted by the Currency Com- missioners or by an Agent duly authorized by them in writing.

Notes issued by Banks duly authorized by law so to do shall be exempt from the operation of this section.

18. This Ordinance shall not come into operation unless and until the Governor notifies by Proclamation that it is His Majesty's pleasure not to disallow the same and thereafter shall come into operation upon such day as the Governor shall notify by the same or some other Proclamation.

Passed this 27th day of November, 1908.

Enclosure 2 in No. 276.

A. H. LEMON,

Clerk of Councils.

REPORT on an " Ordinance further to amend the Currency Note Ordinance, 1899,

being Ordinance No. XXVII., of 1908.

1. A Bill to amend the Currency Note Ordinance, 1899, was introduced into the Legislative Council on the 20th December, 1907, by the Treasurer, and read a first time.

2. The second reading was deferred owing to the absence in Japan of Mr. T. S. Baker, and did not take place until the 17th July, 1908. After being read a second time, the Bill was referred to a Select Committee for report.

3. The Select Committee reported on the 1st October, 1908, and its report was laid before the Council in Paper No 33, of 1908. It recommended that the Bill be dropped, and that a consolidating Ordinance be introduced. It also submitted a number of recommendations for amendments to the law. A rider, to which I will refer later, was added by Messrs. Anderson and Baker on one point. Otherwise the recommendations were unanimous.

4. The Government decided to introduce a new amending Bill. It accepted the unanimous recommendations of the Committee, except in respect of a provision regarding investment of the Gold Standard Reserve, and it followed the recom- mendation of the Treasurer and the Acting Attorney-General to which Messrs. Anderson and Baker had in their rider objected.

5. The most important amendment effected by the Bill is the one which empowers the Commissioners to hold gold in London in the custody of the Crown Agents.

6. The rider was directed at the substituted Section 7 B of the Bill. Under the existing law, the Currency Commissioners are empowered to buy and sell gold remittances at rates which permit of a sufficient margin to cover the cost of the transport of the gold. Thus (the dollar being fixed at 2s. 4d. and the cost of trans- port of gold being taken, for the sake of argument, at a farthing), the Commis- sioners were empowered to receive a dollar in Singapore, and to pay out not more than 28. 34d. in London, or to pay out a dollar in Singapore, and to receive not less than 2s. 44d. in London.

7. The amendment to the Ordinance leaves the selling rate of gold at not more than 28. 34d., but alters the buying rate between 28, 4d. and 2s. 44d. This it is that has raised the opposition of Messrs. Adamson and Baker in the Select Committee, and the opposition of the unofficial members of the Council.

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8. In other respects, the Bill empowers the Commissioners to retain in the currency vaults the dollars that will shortly be demonetized, until such time as the Governor may order them to be sold. It contains minor provisions relating to the coin portion of the Note Guarantee Fund: provides for the constitution of the Gold Standard Reserve, and contains a provision (borrowed from the Indian Paper Currency Act, 1905), to prohibit the issue of notes payable to bearer on demand, except, of course, in the case of authorised Banks.

Assent.

9. I am of opinion that this Ordinance may properly receive the Royal

W. GEORGE MAXWELL,

Acting Attorney-General.

Attorney-General's Chambers,

Singapore, 1 December, 1908.

Enclosure 5 in No. 276.

No. 39 of 1908.

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

Paper to be laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the

Governor.

CORRESPONDENCE regarding the Amendment of "The Currency Note Ordinance,

1899."

SIR,

I. CHAIRMAN, Chamber of Commerce, Singapore, to COLONIAL SECRETARY.

Chamber of Commerce, Singapore, 24 August, 1908. I HAVE the honour to inform you that the representative of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce on the Legislative Council having brought to my notice the fact that Government propose to amend the Bill "Further to amend the Currency Note Ordinance of 1899" which is now before the Legislative Council by deleting Section 7 B (1) of the existing Currency Note Ordinance and substituting therefor the following section:-

Notwithstanding anything in this Ordinance contained it shall be lawful for the Commissioners to issue notes in exchange for gold payable to the Crown Agents for the Colonies in London at a rate of exchange not less than that of the fixed rate of seven sovereigns for sixty Straits Settlements dollars." I laid the matter before the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce at the meeting held on Friday, the 21st instant, and secured the attendance at that meeting of the Managers of all the Banks in Singapore, except the Manager of the Nether- lands Commercial Bank (who was, however, invited) in order to have the benefit of their views on the proposed alteration; and the result of the deliberation of my Committee on the subject was unanimous opposition to any alteration being made in the existing section in question, which, it was considered, had in the past under most adverse conditions worked most satisfactorily; at the same time the unanimous desire was expressed that any further sovereigns that may be received by the Currency Commissioners in exchange for notes should be held in Singapore and used solely for redemption purposes, as required.

I am further desired to emphasize the fact that my Committee are strongly in favour of the Gold Reserve being held in Singapore rather than in London and to state that they consider that the stability of our exchange and confidence in our currency will be best established by the adoption by this course.

Trusting that Government will see its way to fall in with the views of my Committee on a matter of such vital importance to the commercial interests of the Colony,

I have, &c.,

W. P. WADDELL, Chairman of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce.

II-MINUTE by the TREASURER.

I don't understand what the Chairman means by the statement that this section *had in the past under most adverse conditions worked most satisfactorily." The

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