EXCLUSIVE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 149, 26 June 1934, Page 5

EXCLUSIVE.

RESERVE BANK. "NQ INFORMATION" POLICY. INQUIRIES TTNWEI.COME. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, this day. On August 1, the notes of the New Zealand Keserve Bank will commence to circulate, and the organisation of this new institution must be in full swing. Detaile of the preliminaries would' be interesting to the people of the Dominion, but it seems that little or no assistance will be forthcoming from the bank for newspapers, which desire to publish legitimate, accurate information. The natural desire of pressmen to keep their readers informed is not encouraged at Reserve Bank headquarters, which are temporarily to be found in the General Post Office, Wellington. It is evident that the governor, Mr. Leslie Lefcaux, will impose on the organisation the austere traditions of the Bank of England, where he formerly held a high and responsible post. Bankers are usually reticent, but the Reserve Bank of New Zealand is going to set them all a remarkable example in exclusive privacy. Pressmen find their enterprise daehed against a stone wall of official reticence, polite, but firm. For instance, when the complete directorate had been appointed, it would have 'been interesting to know the date of the first directors' historic date in New Zealand banking history, and not a very dangerous secrethut this could not be learned from Reserve Bank headquarters, and the information was gleaned second-hand. Where will the Reserve Bank do its business? Another interesting point which eventually got into prat, but only at first as an "understood' item. However, the practical preparations for a banking/headquarters, complete with strong rooms, were too exten siveto

to-day that the Reserve Bank will be installed on the ground flo#>r of the Dominion Farmers' Institute, the lofty and imposing pile not far from Government Buildings, in the "official" part of the city. Official Who " Might " Oblige. Just over a month hence, the familiar i notes of our commercial banks will commence to disappear. As they are paid' in over the banking counters they are to be replaced by those of the Reserve Bank. What will the new notes be like? This very natural question could not be answered at Reserve Bank headquarters; in fact, the only official the pressman could see about it was one who came into a corridor to promise that ho "might" oblige by putting the inquiry to the governor. However, the request did get to the highest authority, and no information could be given. This, at any rate, was "official." It is a new and novel atmosphere for pressmen, and quite in keeping with the attitude towards publicity of the Bank of England, in regard to which there is told an amusing, typical, but prob- ( ably quite untrue story. It is said that when something msterious develops! in the financial world, the governor of j the Bank of England, Sir Montague Norman, is moved to make a public statement. Then there are two mysteries.

y [An article concerning the Reserve Bank's note issue appears on another page.]