Page:A colonial autocracy, New South Wales under Governor Macquarie, 1810-1821.djvu/189

 Macquarie mutilated each by cutting out a small coin for exchange. The value of the large coin was 5s. and of the small 1s. 3d.

The Proclamation insisting that the notes should be immediately payable in sterling money was a failure, and the courts were unable to enforce it. Its objects were made more unattainable by the action of Commissary Allan, who arrived in June, 1813. He persuaded the Governor to allow him to replace the old system of store receipts at the Commissariat by the issue of promissory notes signed by the Commissary, pointing out the greater convenience and simplicity of the method. But Allan issued notes for private as well as public purposes, and improved his own while injuring the Government's credit. Had he kept, as he promised to do, within his monthly estimate, he would have run no risk. But he did not, and Macquarie was practically forced to restore the old custom of store receipts. He did it, however, so suddenly as to cause Allan great financial embarrassment, and to procure him the sympathy of the whole settlement. In 1816 a determined effort was made to do away with the depreciated paper currency. At the end of November the tender of sterling money for the face value of the currency notes was again made compulsory, but finding that this could not be enforced, on the 7th December a Proclamation was issued containing a schedule of the rates at which they were to be exchanged, and this was carried out very leniently. Wylde in his desire to find a stable currency to replace the promissory notes proposed that a bank should be established, a scheme