Co-operation Key To Change

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31317, 13 March 1967, Page 14

Co-operation Key To Change

If New Zealanders reacted to the decimal currency change as well as Australians had done there would be no room for complaint, the chairman of the Australian Decimal Currency Board, Sir Walter Scott, said in Christchurch yesterday.

People in business, and the public at large, had cooperated generously in getting the new currency into acceptance in Australia. Sir Walter Scott said the incidence of profiteering from the change by business organisations h» I been very smal.. Many organisations had used the changeover as a chance to advertise that they had actually dropped the prices of their commodities. This applied to goods where there was no exact equivalent in decimal currency to the old prices. Over all, the changeover had meant a slight increase in about 50 per cent of goods and a decrease in about 50 per cent. Sir Walter Scott said the authorities handling the changeover had received thousands of telephone calls from people claiming they had been overcharged. In most cases the allegations were unfounded.

He said it would lie foolish to expect the changeover in New Zealand to go off without a hitch. Elderly people would find it difficult to adjust to the new currency and special consideration should be given them, especially by shopkeepers.

Sir Walter Scott urged patience and understanding

for the elderly who would probably be annoyed and a little frustrated by the changeover.

In retrospect he considered that little more could have been done in Australia to effect a smooth changeover. He thought the board might have worked a little more on some small shopkeepers who had been found to be confused at the time of the changeover. Sir Walter Scott said the first 18 weeks after the change over had revealed almost no increase in the cost of living throughout Australia. Price increases had occurred, but they had not been related to decimal currency.