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July 13, 1907.1
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
CORRESPONDENCE.
THE SUBSIDIARY COINAGE QUESTION.
PRESS.")
Banner of St. George" was performed by a Chorus and Orchestra of over sixty members. Besides the above, the Orchestra at the invitation of 8ir Matthew Nathan, K.C.M.G., performed at Government House on 21st March, 1907. The concerts given in the City Hall were a success financially; but left only a very small profit, due to the heavy expenses which are always (TO THE EDITOR OF THE HONGKONG incurred in connection with the giving of con- certe in the Colony. The Committee, how- ever, feel confident that by taking much of the work into their own hands they will be able to considerably curtail the cost of future concerts. The membership shows an increase on that of last year, the total at the present time, including honorary and active members being 77 in all. It is hoped that during the coming season the Society may by showing the residents of the Colony that their work is for the mutual benefit of all; and induce more bonorary members to join. Messrs. Barlow, Beavis, Bovet and Edwards on leaving the Colony retired from the Committee, also Messrs. Austin and Lammert have resigned owing to their being unable to attend the monthly meetings. Mr. W. A. Dowley, who has had considerable experience with various musical societies, has joined the Committee.
The Committee desire to place on record their great appreciation and thanks to Mr. Denman Fuller for the keen interest he has shown in the Society's welfare since undertaking the arduous duties of Hon. Conductor, and for the able
very way in which he has trained the Chorus and Orchestra during that period, In conclusion the Committee beg to tender their thanks to members for the assistance rendered at the concerts and trust that help will again be forthcoming during the coming season, also to Messrs. Cochrane and Ellis for kindly auditing the accounts.
MACAO.
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.]
June 11th.
GOVERNMENT SHROFFS ABSCOND
On Monday, when it was time for business to begin in the license department of the Faz- ends, three of the Chinese clerks had failed to put in an appearance. A little inquiry went to show that they had left the Colony and taken with them a considerable amount of money representing license fees paid in to the Faz-nda. | Information was dispatched to Hongkong and Canton, and detec: ives have been sent to assist in the search. It appears that these clerks took the fees tendered but told the applicants that the licences could not be handed to them immediately as they had to be passed. In this way they managed to collect à consider able sum, and theu bolted. The public are now wanting to know who is responsible for the laxity thus revealed?
CAPTAIN MORRISON FINED.
Captain Morrison, the popular commander of the bui Tai was on Monday sentenced to three days' imprisonment, but he chose the alternative of paying the small fiue of 100 reis p-r day The charge against him was one of assaulting a Portuguese resident of the Colony. The affair occurred on the steamer wharf a week or more ago and Captain Morrison was arrested He was not detained long, however, but liberated on bail. COMPLAINTS AGAINST THE POLICE.
A
Now and then one hears complaints as to the way the police of the Colony perform their duties, but the men are not, I think, so much to be blamed as their officers. common complaint, for example, is that jinriokisha traffic is often stopped by the police in Rua de Gamboa, leading to the steamer wharves, and sometimes this is done in so rough a manner that the richisha pullers as well as their fares narrowly escape serious injury. There is an order forbidding ricksha traffic in Calçada de Gambos, but I am not aware that there is any forbidding such traffic in Rua de Gamboa, nor is there any call for such an order. It is very annoying to see visitors coming from the steamers stopped by the police in this street, and ordered by menacing gestures, in case the policeman's language is not understood, to leave their rickshas. Perhaps this mention of the matter will result in the officers instructing their men that Rua de Gamboa is not the Calçada de Gamboa.
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leading article I disagree with the view that honesty obliges the Government to redeem all the coin it has issued If it were true that the Government "undertook to stock the Chinese empire with subsidiary coinage" then I would agree with you. But they undertook nothing of the sort. They undertook to stock the DAILY Colony of Hongkong only, and they found that as fast as supplies of subsidiary coins were issued they disappeared into China, and there was consequently a chronic scarcity of subsidiary coins in Hongkong causing great eagerness to pocket the seigniorage that Govern- inconvenience to trade. It was not out of any ment continued to issne these coins, but to meet the urgent needs of the Colony. You can stop the import effectually than you
of coins much more can stop their export, and I am one of those who would consider the Government justified in limiting their liability for the redemption of these coins.
Redemption at par to any amount is, I fear, an impossible proposal at the present time, If we 8530me that three-fourths of these coins
of millions of dollars would are still in existence a loan of a couple be necessary
SIR, Apropos the Government's announce. ment that all Hongkong ubsidiary coins being retained and not re-issued, the step is one received by the Government Departments are in the right direction, but it would be interest- ing to learn from the Government how long in their opinion it is likely to take to rehabilitate by this slow process, the subsidiary coinage of the Colony!
The Government's object is "to reduce the amount in circulation to that required by the necessities of business in the Colony." That amount is popularly estimated at something like two or three million dollars' worth, whereas the Government has issued forty million dollars' worth, and their hesitation to deal with the erils resulting in recent years from the depre- 88 ciation of these coins has apparently been due to a belief that all these coins are still in exist. redeem them. ence and that they are under an obligation to Hence any heroic measure was impossible because of the cost which it would entail.
By the measure just announced, if anything like the whole of these forty million dollars' worth of coins still exist, it will take the Go- vernment at least thirty years "to reduce the amount of such coinage in circulation to that required by the necessitics of business in the Colony "-for I suppose the Government De- partments are not loaded with more than one million dollars' worth of these coins a year, if as much.
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The chief value of the step the Government has taken, it seems to me, is that it will serve to show what the possibilities are of a return of Hougkong colus to the Colony and thus put the Government in a better position to consider, if it should appear necessary, some method of more rapidly reaching the end in view.
If the community would head the Government's warning and demand 111
cents
the
are
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a Redemption Fund. The interest on this at, say, 4 per cent, would be $80,000 & year, and, if the Government redeemed not more than than five millions a year, the annual lakhs of dollars. cost to the Colony would be nearly seven The repayment of the principal would have to be postponed to the Greek Calends in view of the decline in extraordinary revenue and the threatened loss of one-fifth of the ordinary revenue by the extinction of the opium trade.-Yours truly,
CHOPPED DOLLAR.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PRESS."]
Hongkong, 10th July 1907. morning's paper. The policy of this Govern- DEAR SIR, I agree with your leader in this
Bank repudiating its own notes, is dishonest. ment in repudiating its own coiuage, like s
Chinese coins are imported to fill the gap-of As soon as the Hongkong coins are sent home,
course, it pays the Banks, compradores, money changers, and other middlemen.
Silver dollars are scarce, and here is a splendid opportunity for the Banks to demand a premium bluffing the Government? on their own notes, so who can blame them for
Now let the Government be honest and own up Hongkong coin, say, at 5 per cent. discount, and to its own dishonesty. Lt it fix the discount on let it redeem all Hongkong coin at that rate. We shall then have a fized coinage and know where we are. The only way to drive out the Chinese coin The Hongkong coin at 5 per cent, discount will is to make the Hongkong coin more valuable. be almost 3 per cent. better than the Chinese coin and the latter will soon disappear from the
10 the dollar when Chinese sub- sidiary coins are tendered, the result would doubtless be to bring back from Kwang. tung
which Hongkong coins circulating throughout the province. But would that baltogether desirable? The exchange quotations for Hongkong subsidiary coins given in today's Daily Pres shows the dis- count rates on 20/cent pieces to be 770 per ceut, and on 10-cent pieces 800 per cent. The Government's warning, if effective, would have the result of withdrawing Hongkong coins from circulation in the province of Kwang-market. tung, and they would probably be returned to the Colony in shiploads. And the effect on exchange rates would be-What? Cer: tainly the rates would not be improved thereby, and the Government's remedial measure looks for all the world like a huge joke. However, until we see the result of the Government's action it will be consoling to oberish a hope that the bulk of those forty million dollars' worth of subsidiary ooins have
already been melied down by speculating Chines, and that the object of the Government may be attained in something less than thirty years. Yours truly.
CHOPPED DOLLAR. Hongkong, July 8th.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS."1
Hongkong 10th July, 1907. SI,-I hope the discussion which ha arisen on the Government's notification with regard to Subsidiary Coins will result in a statement being made at the next meeting of the Legisla. tive Council which will explain why the Govern- ment does not declare Chinese subsidiary colus to be illegal tender in the Colony It seems to me that only by that means are we likely to see Hongkong coins predominate among our small change." No redemption scheme is of mach use without it.
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With reference, sir, to the remarks on this question of redemption in your interesting
count; it will be cheaper, quicker and more Let the Government buy at 5 per cent. dis- practical than sending coin home to be melted down. Besides we may be able to locate the millions of Hongkong ovin!
Has this idea ever struck you R
Yours faithfully,
W. H. P
VISITORS FROM THE NORTH.
AND THE ALLEGED OBJECT OF THEIR VISIT.
An interesting case was heard before Mr. G. N. Orme at the Police Court on July 9th, the defendant being a woman from Kwangsi who brought with her to Hongkong her two sons and a male acquaintance, the latter, it was alleged, to assist her in selling her children. On Monday evening, apparently in great agita Station and told the detectives that a men sur- tion, the woman appeared at the Central Police
named Leung had taken her eldest boy out for a walk, returning later without him. When she asked what had become of her child, this man would not give a direct reply, but told her it would be unsafe fr her to go out of the bouse, or she would be set upon by foreigners. She escaped, however, went to the Police Station, and as stated, told the police that her boy had been stolen. The detectives at
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