H—No. 6

8

REPORT OE THE ROYAL AUNT COMMITTEE.

of the Sydney Branch of tho Royal Mint: Provided that such yearly payments shall take effect and begin to run on and from the day upon which a Proclamation issued by Her Majesty in England shall be duly published in this Colony, declaring that the coin issued from the said Sydney Branch is to be a legal tender for payments within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 2. The said several sums of money shall be paid by the Colonial Treasurer in discharge of such warrants as shall from time to time be issued under the hand of the Governor. And the said Treasurer shall account to Her Majesty for the same, through the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, in such manner and form as Her Majesty shall be graciously pleased to direct. 3. From and after the day on which the aforesaid yearly payments shall commence, all sums byway of fees dues or charges lawfully received or collected at the Sydney Branch shall be from time to time accounted for and paid over by the Deputy Master or other proper officer of the said Branch to the Colonial Treasurer, to be by him paid into the Consolidated Revpnue Fund of the Colony. 4. This Act shall be styled and may be cited as the " Sydney Mint Act of 1865."

Sub-Enclosure 3 in Enclosure No. 1. Extract from New South Wales Gazette, No. 155, 14th August, 1806. A Proclamation for declaring Gold Coins made at the Branch Mint at Sydney, New South Wales, a legal tender within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and for imposing a charge of threepence per ounce troy of standard Gold on the coinage of Gold at the said Branch Mint, being a charge sufficient to defray the expenses of coinage over and above the expenses of assay and refining. Victoria E. Whereas, by an Order in Council, bearing date the nineteenth clay of August, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, We have thought fit to order that a Branch of our Eoyal Mint should be established at or near Sydney, in New South Wales : And whereas, in the eighteenth year of Our Eeign, by an Order in Council, dated the eighteenth day of October, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, We have thought fit to order that certain pieces of gold money should be coined at the said Branch of Our Eoyal Mint, to be called respectively Australian sovereigns and Australian half-sovereigns, and to be of the same respective weights, fineness, and values with the sovereigns and half-sovereigns now current within this Our Eealm : And whereas, pursuant to and in virtue of the powers given in Oar said Orders in Council, it is provided that a coinage of the said Australian sovereigns and half-sovereigns shall be made, and that every such Australian sovereign shall have for the obverse Our effigy, with the inscription " Victoria D.G, Britannia Eegina, F.D," and the date of the year, and for the reverse the word "Australia," placed in the centre of the piece, encircled by a laurel wreath, and surmounted by the Eoyal Crown, with the inscription " Sydney Mint: One Sovereign," and with a graining on the edge, and that every such Australian half-sovereign shall have the obverse in every respect similar to that of the sovereign, and for the reverse the same word " Australia " in the centre, encircled and surmounted in like manner, but for the inscription the words "Sydney Mint: Half-Sovereign," and a graining on the edge : And whereas pieces of gold money have been and will be coined at Our said Branch of the Eoyal Mint, in pursuance of orders issued and to be issued : And whereas, by an Act made and passed in the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh years of Our Eeign, intituled " An Act to enable Her Majesty to declare Gold Coins to be issued from Her Majesty's Branch Mint, at Sydney, New South Wales, a legal tender for Payments, and for other purposes relating thereto," it is provided that " it shall be lawful for Her Majesty, by Proclamation, issued with the advice of Her Privy Council, to declare that, after a date specified in such Proclamation, gold coins made at the said Branch Mint at Sydney aforesaid, of designs approved by Her Majesty, and being of the same weight and fineness as are required by law with respect to gold coins of the same denominations made at Her Majesty's Mint, in London are to be a legal tender for payments within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and upon such Proclamation being issued, gold coins, made of such designs, and being of such weight and fineness as aforesaid, shall be a legal tender for payments accordingly :" And whereas by the same Act it is further provided that " it shall bo lawful for Her Majesty, by Proclamation, issued with such advice as aforesaid, from time to time to impose on the coinage of gold at the said Branch Mint, at Sydney, a charge sufficient to defray the expenses of coinage over and above the expenses of assay and refining; and it shall be incumbent on the said Deputy Master to coin gold at the charge so imposed :" We therefore, by and with the advice of our Privy Council, have thought fit to issue this Our Eoyal Proclamation, and We do ordain, declare, and command, that from and after the date of the publication of this Our Proclamation in the London Gazette, coins made at the said Branch Mint, of designs approved by us, at Sydney, aforesaid, and being of the same weight and fineness as arc required by law with respect to gold coins of the same denominations made at our Mint in London, shall be a legal tender for payments within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. And We do hereby, by and with the advice of Our Privy Council, by this Our Eoyal Proclamation, impose on the coinage of gold at the said Branch Mint, at Sydney, the charge of threepence per ounce troy of gold of standard fineness, being a charge sufficient to defray the expenses of coinage over and above the expenses of assay and refining. Given at Our Court, at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, this third day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, and in the twenty-ninth year of Our reign. God sate the Queen !