NEW ZEALAND'S CREDIT

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21026, 30 November 1933, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND'S CREDIT

GOVERNMENT STOCK WANTED ENQUIRY FROM AUSTRALIA [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, November 29. To-day the New Zealand Government received a cable message from Australia, making enquiries for an investment of £300,000 in Government stock at 3.} per cent. Effective use of this fact was made by the' Minister for Finance, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, when he replied in the House to-night to Mr H. S. S. Kyle (C, Riccarton), who wanted to know how New Zealand's credit stood abroad.

Mr Kyle referred to the statement published from Mr Thomas Buckland, president of the Bank of New South Wales, severely criticising the contemplated action of the New Zealand Government, with reference to the gold reserves of the banks. Mr Buckland had said that this action was going to damage seriously the credit of New Zealand in the Old Country.

Mr Coates said it was true that Mr Buckland had made some caustic comments, but members could console themselves with the knowledge that his speech was based on entirely incorrect information. Perhaps the best answer to the suggestion that New Zealand's credit was sinking to a low level was that New Zealand's last loan had been raised at a considerably lower rate than the Commonwealth loan, namely 3J per cent, at £97. Another loan had "been raised by a Dominion local body on the same terms, showing that the credit of local bodies was appreciating on the London market. Another answer to the president of the Bank of New South Wales had come that day in the form of a cable from Australia, making enquiries for an investment of £300,000 in Government stock, not at the ruling rate of 3J per cent., but at 3i per cent. That was a further reply to these constant croakings, and it came from the very country that had been the latest to cry out about New Zealand. '"I am glad the honourable gentleman raised the point," said Mr Coates. "The position is very different from what some people would have us believe."