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of £600, similarly received $6,000, but he contributed to the fund $160 only, being 4% on $4,000. The Widows and Orphans' pensior was made up to 3 shillings as an act of grace, under the Secretary of State's despatch No. 170 of the 27th. August, 1897; there being at that date no sterling' salaries.
It would not in my opinion be fair that this differential treatment should be accentuated owing to the rise in the exchange value of the dollar. To take a concrete instance, it is proposed by the Treasurer that a widow on a pension of $600, who has previously received
s.d. 290 a year, should now receive six hundred 3/6 pieces, or £105; whereas the widow on £90 a year is to get no increase, in spite of the fact that the sterling pension has cost about one-third more in contributions than the dollar pen- -sion. The position could be equalised by regarding the £90 pension as consisting of six hundred 3/- pieces and by
s.d.
B.
9.
giving the widow 3/6 for each 3/- piece; but there are
other consideratione.
5.
Officers on dollar salaries with ex- -change compensation are entitled to receive their salaries
6.
at exchange 3/-; and, with certain exceptions which need
not at present be considered, they draw pension and leave
pay at the same rate. This exchange rate was the outcome of an attempt to stabilise salaries against a steady and
long-continued fall in the value of the dollar. After a
number of years this fall ceased, and the value of the dollar then fluctuated, rising and falling within fairly
wide limite. In the year 1913, in order to counteract
the effects of the fluctuation, a further privilege waS
granted, whereunder sterling salaries became payable, að
to four-fifths at 1/9, and as to one-fifth at the rate
e.d.
of
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