The Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu (Oahu), Hawaii) 1840-1841, 1841-12-11

multitude of old accounts to which refer
ence is frequently necessary and as it
would be required to translate the partic-
ulars OF them into the language of the new
system, that language should be assimia-
ted as far as possible to the ari,hme,ical
language now in use. By preserving the
sovereign or pound sterling of Great Brit
am, for instance, as the integral base for
money in that country, no other labor
would be imposed on the accountant than
converting the fractional parts now in use
to their equivalent decimal expression, an
operation with which any one may be-
come familiar in few hours practice.
Then all the new coins of that country of
denomination less than sovereign
would be required to express the tenth,
hundredth, and thousandth parts of the
pound sterling; and not only can any val
ue under the pound sterling be set forth
IN those three parts alone, with greater
convenience and to greater degree of
nicely than by the nine coins now in cir
culation for the purpose but the silver
coins as low as sixpence now current may
be expressed determinateIy in them, and
would therefore cause little embarrass-
ment should it be found impracticable to
withdraw them wholly at once. The
crown, for example, would be two dimes
and five cents, or 25-lOO of a pound
the shilling, five cents or 5-lOO of a
pound the sixpence, two cents and five
mills or $4,000 of pound. the penny,
four mills or 4-lOOO of pound anc the
farthing, one mill or one-thousandth of
pound.
With regard to the legal coinage of our
own country, it probably could not be
improved, with the exception Of slight
alteration in the weight of our cents
but when we come to the obtrusive, in
congruous, and llegitimate eighth and
sixteenth dollar pieces of Spain, sweep
ing change seems necessary. The change
could readily be effected by reducing the
value of the l2aa cent pieces to 10 cents
and the ST cent pieces to cents, which
would soon drive them out of the coun-
try, after the manner Of the old pstareens
a few years since No individual who
has long resided among US, can be ignor-
ant of the Inconvenience and perpIexity
he has met with by the use of these coins,
and can be so prejudiced as not to be
willing to have them abolished. With
these alterations, only slight change
would be required in our laws, such as
the reduction of postage from lSf cents
to Is cents l2a cents to 10 cents 81
cents to 5 cents, &C., which has long been
called for, and few others
Presenting that the foregoing advanta-
ges are sufficiently obvious to create
change in moneys, we shall next endeav-
or to show wherein the system of weights
and measures can be improved, which
will be equally applicable to both coun-
tries.
l. MEASURES OF LENGTH.-The unit
of the measures of length, we conceive
should be the present yard of Great Brit
ain and the United States, from which all
other measures of extension, whether they
be lineal, superficial, or solid, should be
derived, computed, or ascertained. For
scientific, mechanical, mercantile, and re-
tail purposes, it should be divided into
tenths, hundredths, and thousandths,
which can be made to express any other
fractional part Of yard that would be
al.