The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1882-11-04

The subject of our currency laws, as
raised by the late trial, Lazarus VS.. Trous-
seau, has been discussed with a. good deal
of vehemence by business men and politi-
Clans, and the provisions of the Act of 1876
seem to be generally condemned, and any
attempt to enforce them is exclaimed
against as ~tyrannous. To our minds the
%strangeSt part of the whole matter is that
the practise of business men has been to dis
regard the rights conferred on them by the
law in regard to payments in gold. 1t is
only half n dozen years since the law was
solemnly made after an immense amount
of discussion on the currency question both
in the Assembly and among business men.
The mercantile community were satisfied
with it at the time. The editor of the PACI-
FIG COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER of that day
greeted its enactment in the following
words =" With the main idea, that of
making United States gold coin the stand
ard, we believe that no one will be found to
differ" There has always, we believe, been
enough of such gold coin in the country to
suffice for a circulating Medium if the law
had been fully operative. Large transact
tions within the Kingdom seldom involve
the actual transfer of coin payments are
made by orders or cheques, which generally
result rather in the transfer of figures in a
lie iger han in that of actual money, be the
STANDARD what it may. Had the law been
systematically carried out by business men,
il would have caused no one any inc0n-
venience. If United States gold is worth
more than our silver currency, that would
always be taken into account in making a
bargain. Moreover, it Il always open to
make a contract on a silver basis, Just as,
now, the Treasury issues silver notes in re-
turn for the deposits Of that metal, or of
English or French gold coins. Neverthe-
less. no one seems to have given the law a
thought since its enactment, except our
local bankers, who are very particular to
add the words, Gin silver" to their receipts
for deposits. This is the more strange because
for a considerable period american gold
coins Were rate I at IA premium varying up
to as high as 10 per cent. as compared with
the silver currency. How business men
with the law before them (often Tepuhlished,
too. in the almanacs and directories which
have appeared in the meantime. and
enacted so short a time ago. could ignore a
provision of so much importance in al their
transactions we cannot pretend to under
stand. 1t is stated that the payment Of
United States gold for duties and taxes has
long since ceased to be enforced. Cheques
are given for duties purporting to call for
United States gold, but the Treasury has
been content to take the less valuable form
of currency. The Treasury might just as
we'll nave winked at short payments of
taxes and duties as do this. The consterna-
ton of our business men, and the heated
way i'm which they have discussed this
matter since the suit we are commenting on
was instituted is certainly not altogether
creditable. 1t is good proof that the law
has really been a dead letter, but why
shrewd business men should have let it be
so, and why they have apparently forgotten
that the law gives rights to every payee
which might at any momen be enforced,
are things that remain unexplained, and
are, we fancy, ineNplicable.