Rapid Currency Change

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31576, 13 January 1968, Page 16

Rapid Currency Change

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, Jan. 12. The change to decimal currency in New Zealand may well be completed by June. It was planned to take 18 months, but seems likely to be completed in 12 months.

The Decimal Currency Board has reduced its staff from 55, the peak figure at the time of the change, to fewer than 30.

The rapid public acceptance of the new currency has amazed Treasury officials. Only about 7000 business machines remain to be converted, and one conversion company has already closed its Christchurch plant. Wellington is almost a dollar capital, and only a few fringe suburbs are still trading in both currencies. However, the Hutt Valley, one of the last areas zoned for conversion, is still largely trading in £ s. d. Some advertisers in daily newspapers are still reluct-

ant to mark their prices in dollars and cents. Used-car dealers particularly feel there is a psychological advantage in advertising in £ s. d. Most land agents, however, list their property prices in the new currency, often giving the £ s. d. figure as well. The Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon) said recently that the acceleration in the change had not resulted in many problems. “People have taken to the new currency much more quickly than I thought,” he said. The key to the speedy change has been the extensive planning before D.C.Day. New Zealand had the advantage of drawing on Australia’s experience, and the new currency was accepted with little confusion. A spokesman for the Decimal Currency Board said that complaints about overcharging had fallen off completely as the public became used to dollars and cents. The only queries the board received now were about machine conversion. There was no law against companies advertising in £ s. d. but this only confused the public, he said.

A bank official in Wellington said that the decimal system had made things much easier for bank staff. Old currency notes had become rather a curiosity as they filtered in to the bank.