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16 June, 1911.] Uniformity in Currency and Coinage Laws. [10th Day. Mr. LLOYD GEORGE : It is still legal tender until the Government of Australia withdraw it. Mr. PEARCE : Under our law we have taken the power but not exercised it. Dr. FINDLAY: It is not current tender in Australia, as you will find if you go over there. Sir JOSEPH WARD : As to people crossing and recrossing between Australia and New Zealand, the half-crown issued by the British Mint is legal tender in New Zealand, but in Australia they may refuse to take it altogether if they wish, or they may give you 2s. for it. Mr. PEARCE : They do not. Sir JOSEPH WARD : I have heard of a case where the half-crown, no doubt through ignorance of the recipients, was stated not to be legal tender and they would not accept it. The PRESIDENT : Is there no other coin which is different in Australia ? Sir JOSEPH WARD : No. Except that in Australia they have substituted a silver penny for the ordinary penny. We have ordinary pennies in New Zealand, although they are not used very much except for purchasing newspapers. That is the only other alteration I know of. It is inconvenient to have two British countries so close together with two different systems. In order to bring about uniformity it may be necessary to alter basically the units of our coinage, and if it could be done, even at the expense of temporary inconvenience in bringing it about, it would repay the whole of the portions of the British Empire to do it. I do not want to go into a number of details which I have taken the trouble to collate in regard to this matter, except to say that it does appear to me that what Great Britain thought right, say, 20 years ago, when the means of communication between the different parts of the Empire were very slow, and where one portion was almost looked upon practically as foreign, from the standpoint of distance, or the uses of the people doing business, is quite a different thing now when they are all within a month or so of each other, and it ought to be possible as an outcome of a commission after examination and investigation into the whole question to bring about a system which would not be injurious to Canada, which requires to recognise the dollar, because its great neighbour has a dollar in operation. Ido not see why we should not have the two systems in operation, so that if people came from any of the countries using the component parts of a sovereign, they could exchange quite freely. Mr. LLOYD GEORGE: You can use the sovereign and half-sovereign in Canada, I think. Sir WILFRID LAURIER : Yes; you can use everything in Canada. The PRESIDENT : Are they current coins ? Sir WILFRID LAURIER : Yes, they are legal tender to a certain amount in Canada. .The PRESIDENT : Are they much used ? Sir WILFRID LAURIER ; No ; our circulation is paper.