The Daily News. SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 1901. COINAGE REFORM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIII, Issue 191, 24 August 1901, Page 2

The Daily News. SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 1901. COINAGE REFORM.

A DiuCcssioN, which is being pirtici pated in by the leading newspapers and public men of Melbourne and Sydney, it now, gays the New Zealand Times, in progress, having for its object the introduction of a rational coinage system for the Commonwealth, The movement is broader and more important then we have conveyed, for it aims at placing the weights and measures as well as the coinage upon a decimal basis. It is difficult to estimate the enormous annual tax that is placed upon British trade and industry by the archaic and complicated system of computation that has been allowed to grow up haphazard. The unnecessary loss of a year or two in teaching children how to calculate pounds, shillings and peyce, ton?, cwts., quarters, pounds and so forth, is a small matter in comparison to the many years that are watted in the aggregate by clerks, book-keepers, and all those engaged in managing commercial transactions. If only a beginning ware made by plaoing our coinage on a decimal basis, the saving would be tremendous, Decimal coinage is, of course, "unEnglish"; worst, it is associated in the mind of the average Britisher with the excesses and absurdities of the doctrinaires of the French I evolution. Noveltheless, the change introduced] in France two hundred years ago, by J which the calculation of money, weights and measures were reduced 'o nn almost ridiculous simplicity, was a genuine reform. Its value was promptly recognised all over the New World of the West, »o that even in Canada, under British rule, dollars and cents are the coins used and the standards according to which accounts are kept. British conservatism in" such matters has proved invincible, both in fh« Old Country and throughout Australasia; but there are now indications that t'.ie j Commonwealth will insist upon a reform being instituted in Australia, In any suph movement ifaw JJealand mush share, and our commercial men are, 1 we believe, fully alive to the benefits that would flow from change. The great " bogey " in Britain bag been the disturbance to trade that would be caused by altering the coinage; and the case cf poor purchasers and traders has been especially cited as involving much p n ßsible hardship and loss. No doubt, if the value of the penny were radjjcad by a fractional amount, sellers would lose on giany articles, with regard to which the' penny js the basis of value; and similarly, if the value of the penny were slightly raieed the buyer would suffer. It s»ems to us that this objection would be met by keeping she ppnny intact—the latter becoming the cent., while tfie farthing, which is not in circulation here, could he left out of the coinage, Thus no should have two bronze coins, the penny and half-penny; two nickel silver coins, value 2|d and 5d respectively; silver coins, the quarter dollar, worth 12id; the half dollar, 2s Id ; and the dollar, 4s 2d, equal to 100 cents. The half-sovereign and sovereign, by having their value raised to 10i 6d and 21s lOd respectively, wou'd ba brought into the decimal system, and we should faaye all kinds of mercantile calculations vastly simplified, with minimum 6f (Jifiyrbance to {very interns*. Theso'dsovreign, or five dil'ar piece, would be iho standard coin ; but at the same time the penny, or two cjnt piece, would not haye its value disturbed. This plan, it seems to us, would be preferable to one advocated in Melbourne, under which

it is proposed to make the standard gold coin of the value of 25s wir.h the I half-crown as the tenth of it, and the |" threepenny bit" as the cent. However, the question of the different coins and their adjustment is one t.hnt would have to bo s ttled by the finaucial experts. The great thing is to have the public mind penetrated with the dfsirab'eness of lv.forrn. There can ba no doubt that New Xe.iland, which does the bulk of her commei cial interchange with Great Britain, has soma reason for adhering to tho coinage in vogue in the Old Country ; but j this fact should noS blind our mercantile leaders to the importance of urging the reform. If the decimal system were to be adopted by Australasia, Great Bri'ain would sooa follow suit, and a practical step towards the commercial federation of the English spoakisg people would be taken.