CO129-334 - Governor Nathan - 1906 [5-7] — Page 593

((C O P Y.)

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„258IA99A'O MORAMO C'MIEGLAR DIN

WIX @

Memorandum from Mr. J.C. Peter to the Chief Manager, 14th. July, 1906.

In accordance with your instructions, I proceeded to Canton on Friday night, and called yesterday morningon Mr. R. W. Mansfieli, who had kindly made arzangenants for Taotai Wen, two Chinese Officials from the Mint, and one of the Board of Re-organisation to meet me at the Consulate.

I found them perfectly willing to discuss the question of subsidiary coinage, and at the same time professedly quite alive to the

seriousness of the present position,- the impression I carried away with me was

that they now find themselves in difficulty, and are only too saxious to find

any means of getting out of it.

I was assured that they quite realise the issue of Sub.

coin has been much overlone, and that the proper thing to do is to shut down

entirely on further subsidiary coinage, but the difficulty they are confronted

with is, that if they do so, they would have to compensate their foreign

Employees, and will also lose their skilled labour, which ithas taken them

years to train. They have an idea that they may be able to alter the Mint, so a

as to make it suitable for some Industrial undertaking, but I shouli think the

practicability of such a scheme is extremely doubtful.

They inform me that since the commencement of the year,

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they have only been coining 20 cent pieces, averaging a value of 3/5,000 Deals

per day, and 500 Strings of cash per day (1 string 1,000 cash) just

sufficient to keep the Mint working. I am afraid however that with money so sO9

scarce with the Provincial Government, there is always the temptation for them

to take the smallest ready profits on subsidiary coinage, without looking forward to the ultimate trouble that they are storing up for themselves and

the Province.

I handed to them a memorandum on the bal results to trade

of the too free minting of Sub. Coins, laying stress on the consequent impover→ ishment of the people and the ultimate diminution of revenue collected in a

depreciated