The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1883-05-26

WE are informed that the publisher of
one OF our weekly contemporaries has adj
dressed q letter to the Premier informing
him that the public mind is full of "appre-
tensions and alarm y on the subject of the
new hawaiian COinage. and ~prOpOundinO n
string of questions as to the policy of the
government in regard thereto. Enquiries
oy newspaper men as 10 what Ministers
may be about To DO in this or any other
matter when made with the view of bro
Vldlng for the public and not
merely as 4 cadge for some chance to insinu-
ate evil matters or imaginary derelections of
duty are so common and so proper that there
was surely no need for this publisher To
correct a wholly fabulous story of a feverish
condition of the public mind as an excuse
for seeking the Information he was anxious
TO acquire. The coinage Act, passed in the
days of the Wilder Ministry and with the APP
prevail and endorsement of all the business
men then in the Assembly, has been long
enough before the public for it's bearings to
be understood and well canvassed and the
intention OF the present administration to
carry out its provisions has also been we'll
known for some considerable time, spoken
OF IN the public journals and discussed in
private, and approved by every one but the
few who may have found in the absense OF
a national coinage an opportunity for pro-
Int. The only anxiety that we have ever
heard expressed has been for an arrival O.
That very convenient coin the l28 cent
piece, the bit, or rial, so much used as
name, but non-eXisten except on Maui
where quarter-dollars, cut in two, still do
duty for it.
1t is only people who are ignorant of the
first principles of political economy who can
for u moIuent fear that the introduction
here OF n national coinage will produce any
results which need cause .'a%pprehensions
and alarm" Various private individuals
have introduced here from time to time
large masses of the coin of other countries
with no other result than the public con-
N4nlancR and fIniP NV, rnE NJ. H..
the government takes up this business
there may no longer be room for IA profit to
importers of foreign coin, but the public
convenience will be conserved as before.
III viii, indeed, be conserved iii n more en-
lhent degree, because our own coins will
not be so ready 10 flow away from the
country at every turn as happens with so
many denominations of those foreign coins
that have been allowed to pass current
here.
OF all the forms of money current in his
country the most acceptable to the public
and the most useful is the Hawaiian
Treasury note. Those slips of paper, repre-
senting a heavy bulk of clumsy coin, go
from hand to hand without any of that in
evitable loss by wear and tear which is
the fate of all coins. Such notes as these are,
TO quote an eminent American authority,
different and unlike the circulating notes
of the Banks or even the Greenbacks" (of
the u. >. Al 90 both of which are, in form
and nature, simply promises to pay money,
debts OF their makers, and credits in the
hands of the holders. But the gold and silver
certificates are not promises to pay, but GER
tificates of th~edeposit o~factual money. They
represent the money itself. AS they pass from
hand to hand the right and title to the money
itself in the Treasury Department passes
from hand to hand. 1t saves the wear and
tear of the coin, and yet is equivalent to a
circulation of the money itself" Another
important feature in this country of Treas
ury notes is that they are not like gold
coin, always drifting away to China. 1t
seems to us therefore tina the Govern
ment, in making its first experiment in
the issue of a national coinage with
silver only will be taking a wise
step. For such silver the Treasury
will always be ready to issue its certif-
Gates which take the place of, and are
at the same time more handy than gold
coins. If the Treasury would add to the
denominations it now issues a So note, gold
would never be wanted in this country ex-
cept for very occasional purposes of ex-
change.