HC Deb 20 May 1870 vol 201 cc1057-8
MR. MUNDELLA

said, he wished to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether the Report of a Commission appointed September 24, 1869, by Sir Hercules Robinson, the Governor of Ceylon, to consider the necessity or desirability of a change in the denomination of the Public Accounts, has been received and considered by the Board of Treasury; whether, upon that Report, out of the ten Commissioners appointed, three did not report against the necessity or desirability of any change, three in favour of a change proposed by Sir Hercules Robinson, and four in favour of a change founded upon the decimal system; whether a Memorial praying that no change be made in the denomination of the Currency of Ceylon, signed by the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce at Colombo, on behalf of the Chamber, by the Managers of two out of the three Banks established in Colombo, and by 530 of the principal merchants and traders, European and Native, in the Colony, has been received and considered by the Board of Treasury; and, whether, upon the Report of the Commission, and against the prayer of the Memorial, any, and if so, what change in the denomination of the Currency of Ceylon is contemplated by the Government?

MR. STANSFELD

stated, in reply, that the Report of a Commission appointed by Sir Hercules Robinson to consider the necessity or desirability of a change in the denomination of the public accounts, had been received and considered by the Board of Treasury. It was perfectly true that three out of the 10 Commissioners expressed their dissent from the Resolution declaring the necessity of a change; the remainder, however, approved the change. Of the 10, four also approved the suggestion that there should, be a decimal subdivision of the Ceylon coinage. That representation would have been formally considered, if it had been thought that the proper time for its consideration had arrived. It was true that the proposed change had been memorialized against by some of the Chambers of Commerce and merchants; but the arguments they employed were far from convincing.