§ MR. ALDERMAN SALOMONSsaid, he wished to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, If Her Majesty's Government intend to act upon the recommendation of the Sydney Branch Mint Committee of last Session, for legalizing the circulation in the United Kingdom of the sovereigns coined at the Branch of the Royal Mint at Sydney?
§ MR. THOMSON HANKEYsaid, he wished also to ask whether Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer is aware of an Act of the Legislature of New South Wales by 641 which a discriminating duty was imposed on the export of gold, and whether it is the intention of the Government to allow that Act to take effect?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERsaid, that to reply to the second Question first, he had seen a Bill of the nature described by the hon. Member (Mr. T. Hankey), but he did not know the precise stage at which it had arrived in the colonial Legislature. With regard to the difference it established between coined and uncoined gold, apparently with the view of drawing business to the Sydney Mint, he would observe that the Bill did not make an innovation, but only reduced certain duties now in existence by their relative amounts. With regard to the Question put by the hon. Member for Greenwich (Mr. Alderman Salomons), he had to say that Her Majesty's Government had the disposition generally to give effect to the principal recommendations of the Committee of last Session with respect to the circulation of the colonial sovereign; but he did not wish to give so absolute a pledge on the subject as would preclude the Government from following any advice they might hereafter receive on a more public and general discussion of the subject, because, though it apparently did not involve any great results, yet it was one of considerable importance. It was his intention to have prepared a Bill for the purpose of embodying the views of Her Majesty's Government on the subject, but he had just learned that some circumstances had occurred in the Colony which bear, in an important degree, on the question of their taking immediate steps at home. It was the opinion of the Committee of last year that the Sydney sovereign should be made a legal tender in Great Britain, and an essential part of the arrangement would be that of making permanent provision in that Colony for the establishment of a mint which should be as permanent as though it was a part of the establishment on Tower Hill. He found that, owing to causes which might or might not be connected with the measure, the Bill for making a permanent provision of that character had just miscarried in the New South Wales Legislature, and it might therefore be desirable that they should take time to consider whether they should proceed further until they more precisely knew the intentions of the New South Wales Legislature with regard to this subject.