PLETHORA OF GOLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 138, 12 June 1926, Page 11

PLETHORA OF GOLD.

■ ■ INDIA "CHOKES" WITH IT. HOARDING OUT OF DATE. The number of sovereigns in India is reported to be so large now that the money-changers are offering them in exchange for rupees at a lower rate than English notes. Many Englishmen resident in India who are going Home on leave are taking with them bags of English gold. I The official rate of t,he Indian exchange . at the end of the war was 12 rupees to • the pound, but in the Bombay bazaars a , sovereign could be sold for 20 rupees, so ! scarce was English gold and so great the , demand for it. To-day. with the bank I rate of -exchange a little more than 13 \ rupees and 0 annas, it is possible to buy sovereigns from the money-changers ' for 13 rupees and 5 annas each, and for a \ pound note they will ask" an anna more. The reason is that India, which has \ long been a sink for gold, and last year absorbed half the world's output, 'is almost choked with the precious ' metal, and has now more gold than it can use. Each mail boat brings out < thousands of sovereigns. The banks, it is said, a-re at a loss to know what to do with them. Silver is even more plentiful.- - ' English silver can be bought in Bombay at 3 annas in the pound cheaper than • English currency notes. The pre-war average of India's gold 1 imports amounted to nearly 100,000.000 ' dollars, a figure which was more than ' doubled in 1025. This prosperity is attributed to a series of good monsoons I and the facilities granted by the Indian ! Government for deposit of funds in the I Natiqrial Savings Bank. {This method » has [encouraged the masses of Indians ■ to invest instead of burying their money in the ground.