"CONTROL OF MONEY."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 225, 23 September 1938, Page 6

"CONTROL OF MONEY."

When speaking at Geraldine in August the Prime Minister remarked that he " had a shrewd idea that big changes had to come in the control of money." Last night, in his policy speech for the Government, he returned to the subject. "The time must come," he said, "and come pretty rapidly, when everything in the issue and control of currency will be in the hands of the people's representatives." He made several other references in the same sense, and the official statement of the party's policy contains the intimation that the Government intends " to maintain and extend the control o£ credit and currency until the State is the sole authority for the issue of credit and currency." This might be regarded as the expression of an aspiration, or as a mere sop to the currency reformers, but one of Mr. Savage's followers has been more explicit. Speaking in Dunedin this week, Mr. J. W. Munro, M.P., is reported to have hinted at the probability of State financial assistance to secondary industries. " This could be done by buying out the shareholders in the Bank of New Zealand and linking that bank with the Reserve Bank." Is this to be the beginning of the change that " must come pretty rapidly " T Before the campaign is far advanced someone of greater authority j than Mr. Munro should be asked to give a [ plain answer to the question.