CO129-365 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1910 [1-3] — Page 107

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$718,649

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incurred being $666,87. This has of course been a very

heavy strain upon the finances of the Colony which not

only lost a source of Revenue which it had hitherto however

Whoto By Door

(a

$179,662 great financial depression anjannual loss of $104,000.

illegitimately enjoyed but has incurred during (a period of

averagt

3.

I transmit herewith a volume of

printed papers on this subject up to October, 1908. Your

Lordship will have seen from the latter documents included

in this volume, and from my Despatches on this subject,

that soon after my arrival in the Colony I appointed a

Committee of the most representative Merchants and Bankers

under the presidency of the Colonial Treasurer to enquire

into this question.

4.

A majority favoured the prohibi-

-tion of the circulation of Chinese coins in Hongkong, but

among the members who constituted this majority there were

several who expressed only conditional adherence, or who

modified their concurrence by special limitations. The

minority consisted of Mr. J. R. M. Smith, Manager of the

Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, whose authority

on such questions from a Banking point of view is admitted-

-ly unrivalled, Mr. D. R. Law, head of Messrs. Butterfield

and Swire, probably the largest Merchants and Shipping

Firm