We have given considerable space to extracts from (he correspondence on the proposal made by the Singapore Chamber of Commerce to establish: a British Trade dollar in the Straits, There are several further letters in the pamphlet which the Singapore Chamber sent ne, but those we have given place before our readers the present position of the matter. The correspondence was commenced in 1876, bat the ques. tion slept for a few years until the Auditor-General of the Straits Settlements referred to it in hie report for this year, The Singapore Chamber of Commerce then addressed the Hong. kong Chamber, and that body in re= plying suid that it would be happy fo join in submitting the proposal to the Home Government, leaving it, however, to the Singepore Chamber to adopt any particular course of action which it might think expedient, The spore Government, in the menn= time, addressed the Hongkong Govern. ment and the result was the Report of the Treasurer of Hongkong, which Mr, Walter with bitter irony culls exhnustive, It senreely touched the question that had been submitted to the Hon, A. Lister, which wns the policy or otherwise of procuring " British Trade dollar, coined in Land to be intro need into circulation in the Straite, and if the Hongkong Government enw fit, in Hongkong. Mr, Lister chiefly addressed himself to the consideration of the expediency of esiublishing a mint in the Enst for the coinage of these clallam; avery different matter, But, even when considering th n deepntch of the Hongkong rer, on the states ments which he gives and the argument which he founds on them, we uro sure prised at the want of knowledge of the views of the meronntile and banking communi which it displays, Fur many year past the vast mujorily of matiers in China have been of opi that the closing of the Hongkong 1868 was a very grent mistake, which has produced serious to trade, There out be no ques tion that if the Hongkong Mint had been persevered with for a your or two longer it would have been successful business enterprise, or that the dollars coined by it would long ago have been the currency bee tween foreig re nnd natives in Chinn, and all over the Straits Settlements, The Mexican dollar would practicnily have disnppenved from the Bast, and British coin, with all the aseuronce that quality would have been mniutained and that fall supplies would always have been obtainable as long us bar silver was to be bought, would have taken its place, the mistake of close ing the Mint was made, and for years trade in the Straits and China hadtorely on Mexico for a currency, and very frequently has been hampered by it not being randily attainable, and only at prices far above the intrinsic value of the coins, The irregularity in supplies, and the occasional high cost of Mexican dollare gave the Japan Government the opportunity of introducing the yen some of the Chinese money mare kets and into Singapore, There oan be no doubt that foreign trade in China, and in the Straits, would have been strengthened by a Hongkong dollar having come into general use, ha superseded the Mexican and Spani dollars and havii ted the necessity for the Japanese yen, all which it would have done had not tha Hovgkong Government closed ils mint,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.