Directory_and_Chronicle_1930 — Page 1282

MONEY, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

HONGKONG AND STRAITS SETTLEMENTS

MONEY

The legal tender in Hongkong is British or Mexican Dollars, local 50, 20, 10 and 5 cent silver pieces, to the amount of $2, bronze cents and mils. The circulation of any foreign silver or copper coin other than the Mexican dollar is prohibited. Some of the banks issue notes from one dollar upwards. Mexican and British dollars were demonetised in the Straits- Settlements in 1904 and a Straits dollar substituted. The value of this dollar is fixed at 2s. 4d. In the Straits 50-cent pieces are legal tender for the payment of any amount; so also- are sovereigns.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

English, Malay and Chinese in the Straits Settlements, and English and Chinese in Hongkong and the Treaty Ports of China are used.

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

MONEY

The peso, equivalent in value to fifty cents, United States Currency, is legal tender in the Philippine Islands to any amount. So also are the United States gold coins. The media or half peso is legal tender up to ten pesos. Though the coinage is on a gold basis, no gold coins are in circulation, Government silver certificates are issued for ten, five, and two pesos, and the Banco Español Filipina of Manila issues bank notes for five, ten, twenty-five, fifty, one chundred and two hundred pesos.

MEASURES AND WEIGHTS

The official system is the Metric system, but weights of Spanish origin are still in com- mon use. The picul in the Philippines is 137.9 lbs., 16 piculs going to the ton.