CO129-334 - Governor Nathan - 1906 [5-7] — Page 629

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fits on minting and circulating coinage are quaint consi-

dering the fact that the profits the Colony has made from

furnishing the Kwang provinces with token coins have been

at the expense of the people of those provinces. The state-

ment that it is "owing to the scarcity of Hongkong money

that the public have nothing but Chinese coins in their

possession is incorrect as the public can obtain as much

Hongkong subsidiary coinage at the banks as they desire.

#

The refusal of the Post Office and other Departments of the

Government to accept Chinese coins is of course justified

by these not being legal tender. The example of such re-

fusal if generally followed by such companies as "The

Electric Traction Company of Hongkong" would tend to check

the circulation in the Colony of the Chinese subsidiary

coins.

5.

In that part of the Company's letter which

follows the astounding quotation from "The South China

Morning Post" from which I have quoted the Board rightly

recognize that it is not only the Chinese but also the

Hongkong subsidiary coins that have fallen in value though

they seem not to be aware of the main cause of this fall

the over-issue of Chinese coins by the Canton mint and the

corresponding shortage of dollars from which these coins

have, at any rate partly, been produced.

6.