Broker Sees Change

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31923, 26 February 1969, Page 20

Broker Sees Change

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, Feb. 25. In the coming year the Stock Exchange Association of New Zealand would probably have to consider a full overhaul of its present system of reporting sales, said the president of the association (Mr F. K. Knox) at the association’s annual conference in Wellington. The present system was a lagacy of the days when each district was a separate financial entity, but was inappropiate now, when a national market was no longer a dream but a reality, he said. He said that a complete revision of the Sharebrokers’

Act, 1908, now in train, would bring sweeping charges in the statutory obligations of members. The conference decided that the unofficial list be discontinued from April 1, 1970. The year 1968 might, in time, be seen to mark the end of an era, Mr Knox said. The American dollar, which bad reigned unchallenged as the most desirable currency in the world and had been the chief lubricant for expanding world trade since the end of World War 11, was now suspect, he said. Uncertainty was forcing nations and individuals to move funds to the safest refuge, generally speaking those countries which had internal stability, a net surplus in external trade, sound financial management and

few, if any exchange controls.

Unfortunately, recent problems with the balance of payments and in particular, the barrier of exchange control, had excluded New Zealand, despite internal stability, from participating in the benefits generated by this flow of capital.

“The efforts of the Government to strengthen our external position must, therefore, be given every support by the community, as this will be the cornerstone of the future economic development of our country,” Mr Knox said.

“The outflow of population, the adverse overseas publicity and the continuation of irksome controls are only byproducts of a weak external position.”