No. 54

I have the honor to forward an Authenticated and two
plain Copies of an Ordinance of the recent Session of the
Legislature of this Colony, entitled;

No. 8. An Ordinance to establish a Decimal system
of Accounts in the Colony of British Columbia.

I add the Report of the Attorney General.

2. This Ordinance contains a suspending Clause. Had
I not been informed that a similar enactment has been allowed
in Vancouver Island, I should not have much hope for the enclosed.

3. Much as I approve of the simplicity of the Decimal
system of Accounts, I do not approve of our taking a Foreign
Coinage as the Standard, and regulating our own Gold Coins
thereby. In most of the West Indian Colonies the cent and
half penny are declared to be equivalent. Under this system
the sovereign is only valued at four dollars, eighty cents,
and escapes from circulation. In British Honduras where no
Bank notes are in circulation, but a most abundant supply of
Mexican, South and Central American Coin, the Sovereign is
by law made equal to five dollars, the shilling to the quarter
dollar or twenty five cents. Of course the Spanish doubloon
and dollar, and United States Gold are at a premium and are
withdrawn from general circulation.