Reed Head Lauds N.Z. Devaluation

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32217, 9 February 1970, Page 12

Reed Head Lauds N.Z. Devaluation

(N.Z. Press Association)

MASTERTON, Feb. 8, Since New Zealand devalued its currency to parity with Australia its potential for industrial development and export trade has really opened up, Dr Philip H. Sykes said in Masterton last week.

Dr Sykes is deputy-chair-man of Reed, a British group of companies with a turnover of S3oom a year, and a director of Reed Consolidated Industries, an Australian and New Zealand group whose annual turnover is S6sm. Reed Consolidated Industries has three subsidiary companies in New Zealand and is a large shareholder in Tasman Pulp and Paper.

Dr Sykes, who is accompanied by his wife, is here on a tour of New Zealand and Australia. He is making a complete round of all the companies in Reed Consolidated Industries, and studying their future plans with the local managements. “Devaluation of the currency to parity with Australia is one of the best things New Zealand has done,” Dr Sykes said. “New Zealand is taking advantage of this, realising that the East is where the markets are. . “The Australia and New Zealand Trade Agreement is only in its early stages, but already it is doing something in the rational development of the two countries. “The realisation that New Zealand has not only agricultural products, but also timber and other products, and taking these through to as advanced a stage as possible, enhances much of what is by nature a fairly limited endowment of raw materials."

New Zealand was the only Commonwealth country that had a newspaper in London, he said. The “New Zealand News” has a circulation of about 10,000, and Dr Sykes is on the advisory board.

Manthel Holdings.— lnterim 6 per cent (last year 8 and 6 per cent) payable February 27; ex dividend, February 21.