April 4.
OnE of the. most important} matters contained in Thursday's! Municipal Gazette was rather hidden ay with various other topies under the general heading of "Excerpts The particular excerpt to which' we would draw attention is that! referring to a letter from Mr. F, W. Sutterle gesting that the Council should issue five, ten, twenty and fifty cent notes, and with it the Council's decision to consult its bankers as to the! feasibility of the scheme. Perhaps at no time has the subsidiary currency question been more acute for the general public than at ithe' present. The Tramway Com. (Pariy, of course, Kas been hit by, for years, but the matter is to-about a bad currency d 'a good one to be borne in mind, but certain. precedents may here be quoted suggesting that a local currency may at this juncture prove a success.
A str ing example of the success of tokens is provided by the Omnibus Company which gives its clients change in white metal pieces, They are of distinctive character and could not be mistaken for actual coinage, yet they are already practically a definite currency in the currency of the Settlement.
For! instance riesha coolies will accept them, and one of the greatest tributes that could possibly be: paid to the integrity of any body was seen recently when the Com pany ran short of metal tokens and in their place issued surcharged fare tickets, for coolies had no hesitation in accepting these. The Bus Company had, of course, no intention or desire of providing Shanghai with a new currency medium, but apparently to some extent it has unwittingly' done so, and it is not difficult to find the reason for its success. These tokens can be, encashed at par as against the silver della there is question of a depreciated value for them; and accordingly the recipient knows how he stands in the matter of his money.
Frankly he knows very little when it comes to the multifarious' subsidiary wage existing in China to-d A further point is worth attention, and this is the actual intrinsic value of the: tokens in use. They have been so well turned out that an attempt to counterfeit them would require plant so expensive as to make such a business hardly at all profitable, taking into account as well the actual value of the metal used. This is a notable safeguard, coupled with the design of the token, and with reference to the latter it is interesting to recall the case of the "jubilee sixpences." These, issued in 1887, were an exact duplicate in silver of the half sovereign, and what. happened was that they were promptly gilded and passed off on the unwary. So bad was the case that all were withdrawn.
Such an event cannot happen here with the Omnibus tokens, thanks, as noted above, to their distinctive appearance.
Mr. Sutterle's idea is that the Council should issue notes, but the above is surely precedent for a different form of currency the Council should decide to adopt such a scheme. It must be remembered that notes are an expensive item, and the issuing! body requires a large and competent staff to check their issue and cancellation.
The dollar note which. several local' banks -issue does not last on an' average more ing out coinage, need not come under the. operation of Gresham's law, for the tokens, being dependent on the credit of the Municipal Council and on nothing else, and being of considerably lower intrinsic value than the amount of money they represented, would not normally leave the port. It may be remembered that when a great scarcity of small coins existed in France during and after the war, different municipalities issued notes of their own as subsidiary currency. Those of Marseilles, for instance, were not accepted in Lyons, but on leaving Marseilles their possessor could go to the head office of the municipality and convert them into the ordinary frane notes of the realm. If anything like a municipal coinage were essayed in Shanghai, there would have to be such gri' arrangement, and it would be a simple matter to secure this through banks and reputable exchange shops. Probably a very small reserve of actual cash would be needed to back any such issue, and there is no doubt that the whole scheme meal 'The list' of employees. altogether: appears: fairly long, but there is Japparently room for more; for the tires. "Wey are flask. you gentlemen oise Raw" corrected, Very truly yours, [Commission is to be divided int to] Tue Gexmeal, Start Or Tie, THIN two Boards, the Counsellors' and the Executive, Concerning the latter read The Executive Board x divided in certainly did repo recently that recruiting wax going on in that istrict. But if the Third Division w-Ihave been maligned in the matter, we readily call attention to the fact, execute' the decision of] Two Sides to a Protest Assistants ibe determined. im secordance with the need of the yun section This clause alone, it will be se 10 secretaries and no one knows how many assistants, Lat er Jon we find: and current expenses ministrations, "in mecordance. wit Dated from the various oilway" th ccounting' Rules promulgated by the of me the anpraval of he Readers may recall that Last Mon= day we received letters from. the Common Council of Huaian (not far from Txingkiangpu on the ie! Canal) and from the General Sta of the Brd_ Division, protest against statements made by ang pu correspondent. on the conduct of General, Bia. Yer, the Defence Commissioner of the district. General Ma had been reported to be making and unmakinse joe officials, appointing. collectors, enrolling ite am ion. whost_ ses vehemently is one deserving of the most "Thowe "who[ is aire tan™ autre] Prony hae jooblabod x repent: chal a a¢ the Salt Hing: the charges." Now the Chin favour it will learn with satisfaction that the late Mr. A. G What one looks for in ain is, any: Stephen strongly believed in its jussion, t0, the Kind, of, possibilities, and the approval] eet and where and how. Desirable given to it in principle by alas such work may be, one cannot lane oat Ratdcale' Associ: fon are protesting to Nanking jen, Mays conduct and are ed! out of the ars no con: banker of so great experience and capacity must place it in the category of a potentially successful and beneficent scheme. help thinking that, the creation fat sinecures, with their sala portant in the eyes of the knife-grinders" of Peking.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.