The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-05-09

have to pay two per cent. to obtain
gold to paw to dividend receivers and
to creditors who insist upon being paid
in legal tender There is constant
struggle at the Custom House, at the
tax offices and at the Government
treasury to avoid receiving silver and
10 avoid paying out gold. Govern
ment officials are often required to
take from 10 per cent. to % per cent.
and even so per cent. of their salaries
in silver. The excuse is that the Gov
eminent is obliged to receive large
amounts of silver and is under the ne
cessity of getting rid of it in some way:
Gold is boarded. We pay out silver
first and keep the gold as long as we
can. The Cinnamon do this. We all
do it. Gresham's law is as memorable
now in Hawaii as when it was first
formulated during the reign of Queen
Elizabeth. The gold dollar weighing
% grains, of 900 fneness, is the stan
dard of value, or the yardstick of
money, which is the medium of eX-
change. It is just as impossible to
have gold dollar circulate side by
side with a silver dollar worth only
about half the gold dollar, as it would
be to have made legal the selling of
cloth by the yard measured by 36
in. yardstick and by an Is in. yard
stick, and sold at the same price.
Everyone would try to sell by the Is
in. yardstick, and the buyer would try
to buy by the SO in. yardstick. Before
any transaction could be had the yard
stick to be used would have to be
agreed upon.
1t is only because in these islands,
where we all know each other, there
is mutual confidence and forbearance,
that silver does not fall to much
lower depth of depreciation than two
per cent. If gold payments were
rigidly'insisted upon, the evidence OF
the glut of silver would be more APP
parent. But where the gold standard
prevails it is never intended that sill
yer shall be used except as subsidiary
coin-that is, for purposes of making
change.
We are now even trying to keep gold
af1oat, in our community of $4,000
souls, alongside of 100000 dollars of
good deal of American silver and
United States greenbacks and national
bank notes. 1 say 100000 of Hawaii
an silver, because L learn that about
100000 of Hawaiian quarters and
halves have never been issued and re-
main today in the treasury vaults in
the same bags that held them when
deposited there eleven years ago.
The silver dollar in use, of 4124
grains, was coined in the ratio of l to
l6 Us 1881 as valued by the gold stan d.
ard. This was at that time in the
United States 1S34) the true value of
silver as compared with gold. The
great production of silver since that
ratio was fixed has lowered the value
OF silver immensely. The proper ratio
no oh TO 10
a given weight of gold would be worth
about 80 times an equal weight of sill
yer. In order to keep the gold dollar
in circulation side by side with the
silver dollar, the silver dollar should
be cast of about double its present size.
This would solve the matter theoret-
ically; for the intrinsic value of the
two dollars-one of gold and one of
silver-would be the same, and they
would be interchangeable; but the
practical difficulty in handling these
OF this plan. Then, too, any further
variation in relative value would
necessitate the adoption of a new
ratio and q fresh mintage of silver.
No country could stand the expense
of this. The only way too keep silver
IN circulation as a medium of ex-
change and keep gold also in circula-
ton, is to treat silver as commodity
except as small change, and stamp
weight and fineness. This would not
satisfy the silver fanatics.
But the using of silver as
medium of circulation as it OBJ
tains at present in these Islands
is an INN ense burden. Has any
one any idea of the expense to the
community in caring for, counting,
handling and transporting silver in
one year? Bear in mind that our
sugar plantations, expanding for labor,
supplies and material tens of thOus-
aDds of dollars per month, have to
ship the coin up from Honolulu and
it and that it comes back by
shipments from retail traders to pay
their debts TO importers. Coin has
also to be shipped occasionally to keep
good the reserves of the postal money !
order offices.
On consultation with officers of a |
large domestic steamship line, L have |
that about $40, coo of silver |
is transported from and to- Honolulu |
during each month of the year. This |
is $3.50. 900 for the year. and as the other |
steamship company handles an equal /
we are safe in saying that |
1850, 900 of this bulky metal has to cross
md recross our inter-island channels
Turing the year. This amount costs not
b little during the year for freight
charges. The occasional total loss OF
,oin and the constant loss by abrasion
ire worth mentioning. The weight
# this coin is about 50,625 pounds, or
,ver 25 tons-the dollar weighing g. 10
unces averdupois. There is not the
lightest occasion for this state of
hings. L do not say that the rigid
of the gold tender law
would prevent gold coin from being
hiPped among these islands. The
reight charges on shipments of coin
g freight being less than on transfers
trough the postal banks prevent the
after method being used for any but
mall amounts, end the absence of
private banks makes the use of COM
nercial paper less common here thanin
most other communities. The ignorant
re distrustful of paper. In the United
states and England it is estimated
hat the mass of business transactions