25 YEARS AGO

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 104, 26 January 1933, Page 8

25 YEARS AGO

Fluctuations in Bank Rate

(From “The Dominion,” Jan. 25, 1908.) The most interesting and the most satisfactory item in the cable messages published this morning is the announcement that the Bank of England discount rate has been reduced to four per cent. This is the third reduction that has taken place in the rate in as many weeks. On New Year’s Day the rate was seven per cent., on the following day it was lowered to six per cent., on the 16th it was put back to five per cent., and on Thursday last the still more satisfactory rate of 4 per cent, was imposed. A year ago at this date the rate was five per cent., and there was no recession until about the middle of April; the London money market is, therefore, less stringent than It was a year ago. « » * The new halfpenny postcards that are being used by the Postal Depart--ment for circulation within the Dominion are finding favour with the public, and the number sold since the beginning of the year is considerably in excess of the number of penny cards that would have been sold within the same period. Interrogated in the Reichstag, the Imperial Chancellor, Prince Bulow, declined to discuss the Russian franchise question, which, lie said, concerned the Prussian Diet alone. Referring to the disturbances arising out of gatherings of unemployed, he said the Government was determined at all costs to preserve law and order. He warned the workers not to follow agitators and sacrifice their own skins. The Chancellor’s remarks were received with cheers from the Right and with groans and hisses from the Socialists. • - » • Mr. Churchill. Under-Secretary for the Colonies, speaking at Manchester, said that the Government's Naval proposals. without either being panicky or truculent, would yet prove adequate to secure effective protection. Britain's ability to build far quicker than any two or three other Powers put together was recognised.