EXCHANGE PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 193, 10 May 1924, Page 6

EXCHANGE PROBLEM

“UNFAIR CHARGE ON PRODUCERS”

By Telegraph—Press Association. Feilding, May 9. At the annual meeting of the Dairy Farmers’ Union to-day, the chairman (Mr. R. Cobbe) said that dairy farmers were apt to think that matters like foreign exchange were out of their province, but he would like to show how this affected every farmer in the Dominion. Un to February, 1922, demand drafts on London stood at par. In that month the rate was ss. It went to 10s. in April, to 15s. in May, to 255. in September, to 355. in November, and in March, 1924, it went to 40s. per £lOO. They were told that exchange rates were based on fluctuating trade balances, but a close survey of the trade position during 1922 did not warrant exchange fluctuations from par to 355. in ten months. He suggested that the cause was manipulation by banking authorities. A dairv farmer who produced £lOOO worth of butter-fat paid to the banks to-day £2O in exchange; £lO of this amount at least was an unjustified charge, for which he received nothing in the shape of credit or monetary facilities. The Dominion exported goods valued at fifty millions this year, and exchange cost close on £1,000,000. Half of this was an unfair charge on producers. A partial solution of the exchange problem was offered to the Empire Economic Conference bv the Empire Currency Bill scheme, but the heavy hand of the financier seemed to have damned the enthusiasm of the overseas Premiers for the scheme.