SYDNEY MINT.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 February 1926, Page 4

SYDNEY MINT.

HISTORIC INSTITUTION TO BE CLOSED. SYDNEY, January 22. It has been definitely decided by the State Government to close tho Sydney Alint before the end of the present year. Later on the building in Macquarie street which houses it will be demolished. Its passing will be historic in several ways. For one thing it will bring to an end the operations of the only institution performing a purely Imperial function that remains in New South Wales. For many years the Sydney Alint lias been a losing proposition. It was established in 1855 to deal with tlie raw gold as it was won. Subsequently mints were opened in Victoria and Western Australia. They were, and arc being, financed by the State Governments, who, in their turn, act as contractors to the Federal Government in respect of the supply of coinage. It does not nowadays pay the State Governments to run the mints. The Federal Government has had to come to the rescue and has decided to finance its own mint, which will probably he at Canberra, and which will doubtless continue to be a part of tho Royal Alint. The demolition of the mint building will also he of interest, inasmuch as it will remove one of the few remainhistoric connexions with the early colony days. Originally tho building formed portion of the Old Rum Hospital, the first stone of which was laid by Governor Macquarie in 1811. The Hospital consisted of three buildings —the present Parliament House, which has been considerably altered ; tlie main hospital building, the site of which is now occupied by the Sydney Hospital, and the building which now houses the mint, which has been subjected to comparatively little alteration. There are many people who have gone almost into ecstasies over the fine old colonial type of tho mint building, and presently there may arise a cry against its demolition. Rut Air T.nng is hard-hearted in matters of this kind, and furthermore, he has very big ideas as to what is to he done with the property. He cherishes a scheme for a complete row of Governmental and Parliamentary buildings stretching along a whole section of Macquarie street from the Alifcliell Library to tlie Registrar-General’s Office.