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landed interests and all ralating thereto.
As regards the question of payment fær ex-
porta from China, Mr. Osborne admits the danger of a drain of our gold coinage and suggests that
this may be avoided by the use of gold certifi-
-cates to be issued against a gold reserve in
London.
It appears to me that if this proposal is
acted upon it can have but one result. No coin
will be available in redemptim of gold certifi-
-oates when presented, the consequence bedra; a
depreciated paper currency. How such a state or
affairs can be an improvement on our present
silver coinage with, it is admitted, a declining
and uncertain value I fail to understand.
I do not altogether follow Mr. Playfair's
argument that as our Official Expenditure is in
gold (salaries, public debt ete) our revenue
should be so also. The Colony fortunately has
only a small gold loan equal to about one year's
revenue, and so long as the wise policy of keep- -ing down the gold debt is adhered to there need be no very great fear as to the difficulty of
baland ng the budget.
The revenue of the Colony is without doubt a delicate plant requiring constant and watchful
care.
Supposing that the Indian scheme of a fixed
value for the rupee is a success (which perhaps is not yet altogether proved) this was only
undertaken be cause of the dire distress of the
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