‘No Hitches In D.C. Change’

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31379, 26 May 1967, Page 12

‘No Hitches In D.C. Change’

Every aspect of the change to decimal currency on July 10 had recently been examined, and the Decimal Currency Board was -- confident that the 2' change would be smooth and without hitches, said the chairman of the board’s publicity committee (Mr B. Lyons) in Christchurch yesterday.

The publicity campaign would reach its peak next month, he said. At present, he admitted, awareness of the change in currency and its implications was confined to people actually involved in retailing, business and banking.

Because of this, much of the success of the operation would depend on the ability of retailers and shop assistants, not only to handle the new currency easily, but to answer questions about prices from customers.

Mr Lyons said that in Australia some of the smaller retailers were not sufficiently prepared for the change. This was why the board was making sure that smaller shopkeepers and their assistants

were receiving adequate training by courses. Machine conversion was going well, he said. Because of the use of shortened conversion methods which were not used in Australia replacement of certain parts was not necessary; adjustment would suffice.

This was saving the country overseas funds and was also

shortening the conversion period. He estimated that it would take from 12 to 15 months for all the country’s machine sto be converted. The Decimal Currency Board did not recommend keytop conversion of machines, he said. It could possibly be used for old cash registers but before this method was used owners

should discuss the situation with machine company representatives. It could affect service contracts. It had to be remembered that receipts were issued in £ s. d., and in addition, there was the possibility of error when there was a recurrence of one particular price. The method should not be used in a business handling a large quantity of food products, for example. The Education Department had done a good job in seeing that children were instructed on the use of decimal -currency. “They are probably as well informed as anyone in the ’ country on the use of dollars and cents,” Mr Lyons said.