THE DECIMAL SYSTEM; MONEY, WEIGHTS AND 



MEASURES. 



By William James Horne, A.MT.C.E. 



I have nothing- new to add upon the subject; there has 

 Already been a paper ujxon it from Mr. R. T. A. Innes.* Since 

 Mr. Innes" paper, others have appeared; namely; the resolutions 

 ;idopted by the National Advisory Board for Technical Educa- 

 tion.t based upon a memorandum prepared by Professor Bohle, a 

 lecture l)y Mr. H. Allcock, g-iven at the Institution of Civil En- 

 gineers, London,! and the Conference arranged at Johannesburg§ 

 bv the Witwatersrand Centre of the South African Association 

 for the Advancement of Science. The following: remarks are 

 not wholly original ; I have summarised various opinions in order 

 to arouse discussion. 



The advantages of the introduction of a decimal system 

 would concern (a) education and {b) commerce. The educa- 

 tional advantages of the chang-e would not be likely to weiuh so 

 heavily with Government as the commercial advantages might. 

 It appears desirable, therefore, that the Institute of Bankers and 

 the Association of Chambers of Commerce olf South Africa 

 should take indej^endent action in addition to combining with the 

 Association as they have done. The decimal system is most 

 useful to those countries that have manufactures which they 

 desire to export to countries already jx^ssessing a decimal system ; 

 the best time for the introduction of or change to a decimal 

 system in such a country is 'before that country is about 

 to manufacture for ex]X)rt. The change should be made, there- 

 fore, in South Africa now. 



Coinage. 



The system of decimalising the coinage detailed by Mr. 

 Innes is that which has been agreed upon as suitable for 

 the British currency. Foreigners have difficulty in estimating 

 the value of our coins in terms of theirs when visiting Great 

 Britain and those Overseas Dominions using- the coinage of the 

 Royal Mint ; we have practically no difficulty in estimating the 

 value of our coins in terms of theirs when theirs is a decimal 

 system. The proposed change would therefore give greater con- 

 fidence to those purchasing from us. In addition to the simpli- 

 fied ruling of account ]x)oks and ledgers that would result, errors 

 in adding and striking a balance would be less liable to occur, 

 such as that elusive ten shillings difference between the two sides 

 olf the balance sheet. 



The time appears opportune to press the point, as the ques- 

 tion of opening a Union Mint was raised not long ago. By 



*Rept. S.A.A.A.S. (1916), Maritzburg. 



t Sixth meetina: of the Board at Capetown, ist March, 1916. 

 t The Times Engineering Supplement, March 30th, 1917. 

 § Chamber of Mines, Johannesburg. April, T917. 



