56
Evidence, Female Domestic Service, Gasholders Examination, Jury, Lighting Control, Liquors, Marriage, Medical Registration, Merchant Shipping, Midwives, Naval Volunteer, New Territories Regulation, Nurses Registration, Nursing and Maternity Homes Registration, Pensions, Pharmacy and Poisons, Pleasure Ground and Bathing Places Regulations, Police Force, Post Office, Protection of Women and Girls, Public Health (Food and Sanitation), Public Officers (Changes of Style), Public Reclamations Validation and Clauses, Quarantine and Prevention of Disease, Rating, Rating (Refunds), Rope Company's Tramway, Telecommunication, Trade Marks, Tramway, Vaccination, Volunteer.
Factory legislation in the Colony is limited to a single ordinance, The Factories and Workshops Ordinance, No. 18 of 1937, which came into operation on the 1st of January, 1938. There is no legislative provision for compensation for accidents nor for sickness and old age. The introduction of legislation dealing with workmen's compensation is at present under consideration.
Chapter XV.
BANKING, CURRENCY, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
The Colony is well served by banking institutions, including branches of English, American, French, Netherlands, Japanese and Chinese banks. Besides the fourteen banks which are members of the Clearing House, there are several Chinese Banks. Many native Hongs do some banking business. There are no banks which devote themselves especially to agricultural and co-operative banking. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation conducts, in addition to its normal banking activities, the business of the Hong Kong Savings Bank on usual savings bank principles. The credit and repute of the Colony's financial institutions are high and it is satisfactory to know that ample encouragement and support are available to finance any possible demand.
The currency of the Colony, which was formerly based on silver, underwent very important changes at the end of 1935. The unit of currency is the Hong Kong dollar, divided into 100 cents. Until 1935 its exchange value fluctuated with the price of silver; but since the passing of the Currency Ordinance on the 5th of December, 1935, the value of the dollar is controlled by an Exchange Fund, which has power to buy and sell foreign exchange, and has taken over the silver formerly held against their issues by the note-issuing banks, in return for certificates of indebtedness against which the Fund may hold bullion, foreign exchange or approved securities. At the 30th of June, 1938 (the latest date for which figures have been made public) the Fund had issued Certificates of Indebtedness to the value of $191,034,887, which is equivalent to £11,914,806 @ 1/23d, the middle market rate on that day. The total assets of the Fund amounted to £13,012,872.
The legal tender currency of the Colony is now as follows:-
(a) Bank notes, the excess of which over the fiduciary issue of each bank
is now backed by certificates, not by silver as formerly:
at 31.12.38.
(i) Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China... $24,852,657
(a) Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation...... $210,197,678
(ii) Mercantile Bank of India
$4,441,620
(b) Government $1 notes, of which $5,571,000 had been issued up to the
end of 1938.
(c) 10 cent and 5 cent cupro-nickel coins, and 10 cent and 5 cent nickel
coins with the security rim.
56
Evidence, Female Domestic Service, Gasholders Examination, Jury, Lighting Control, Liquors, Marriage, Medical Registration, Merchant Shipping, Midwives, Naval Volun- teer, New Territories Regulation, Nurses Registration, Nursing and Maternity Homes Registration, Pensions, Pharmacy and Poisons, Pleasure Ground and Bathing Places Regulations, Police Force, Post Office, Protection of Women and Girls, Public Health (Food and Sanitation), Public Officers (Changes of Style), Public Reclamations Validation and Clauses, Quarantine and Prevention of Disease, Rating, Rating (Refunds), Rope Company's Tramway, Telecommunication, Trade Marks, Tramway, Vaccination, Volunteer.
Factory legislation in the Colony is limited to a single ordinance, The Factories and Workshops Ordinance, No. 18 of 1937, which came into operation on the 1st of January, 1938. There is no legislative provision for compensation for accidents nor for sickness and old age. The introduction of legislation dealing with workmen's compensation is at present under consideration.
Chapter XV.
BANKING, CURRENCY, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
The Colony is well served by banking institutions, including branches of English, American, French, Netherlands, Japanese and Chinese banks. Besides the fourteen banks which are members of the Clearing House, there are several Chinese Banks. Many native Hongs do some banking business. There are no banks which devote themselves especially to agricultural and co-operative banking. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation conducts, in addition to its normal banking activities, the business of the Hong Kong Savings Bank on usual savings bank principles. The credit and repute of the Colony's financial institutions are high and it is satisfactory to know that ample encouragement and support are available to finance any possible demand.
The currency of the Colony, which was formerly based on silver, underwent very important changes at the end of 1935. The unit of currency is the Hong Kong dollar, divided into 100 cents. Until 1935 its exchange value fluctuated with the price of silver; but since the passing of the Currency Ordinance on the 5th of December, 1935, the value of the dollar is controlled by an Exchange Fund, which has power to buy and sell foreign exchange, and has taken over the silver formerly held against their issues by the note-issuing banks, in return for certificates of indebtedness against which the Fund may hold bullion, foreign exchange or approved securities. At the 30th of June, 1938 (the latest date for which figures have been made public) the Fund had issued Certificates of Indebtedness to the value of $191,034,887, which is equivalent to £11,914,806 @ 1/23d, the middle market rate on that day. The total assets of the Fund amounted to £13,012,872.
The legal tender currency of the Colony is now as follows:-
(a) Bank notes, the excess of which over the fiduciary issue of each bank
is now backed by certificates, not by silver as formerly:
at 31.12.38.
(i) Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China... $24,852,657 (a) Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation......$210,197,678 (ii) Mercantile Bank of India
$4,441,620
(b) Government $1 notes, of which $5,571,000 had been issued up to the
end of 1938.
(e) 10 cent and 5 cent cupro-nickel coins, and 10 cent and 5 cent nickel
coins with the security rim.
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