EXCHANGE MYSTERY

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 68, 13 December 1933, Page 8

EXCHANGE MYSTERY

A Problem to Solve, (-Contributed by “Voyageur.") A man in New Zealand was left a legacy of £5O in South Africa; he brought it to New Zealand and received £b--10/-.* Where did the other £l2 10/- come from? Have you ever been faced with this tough conundrum? ■lt does seom to call for an answer; for it expresses in brief form the widely-held belief that there is some funny juggling in this exchange business. The problem is that fifty, units of South African money have somehow or other become sixty-two and a half units of New Zealand money. ) The question is a hard one; -but perhaps it can be answered by suggest ing an eveq harder one which in fact arises from my own recent experience. It was my good fortune recently to go to Canada, and then what did I distover?- To my amazement, I found that for one unit of New Zealand money I received four and a half units of Canadian money. Where did those extra three and a half units come from? The solution of the problem can no doubt be expressed in a number of ways and with varieties of technical jargon. But is it not both simple and correct to say that the one unit of New Zealand money and the four and a half units of Canadian money are the same thing? Similarly the problem of the New Zealander whose South African “pounds” seemed to increase when expressed in .New Zea-, land “pounds” may be solved. As between New Zealand and. Canada we go from New Zealand pounds to Canadian dollars; from New Zealand to South Africa we go from one country’s money to another country’s money, but —unfortunate as It is for our clarity of thought—the unit in each case happens to be called a “pound,.” If either New Zealand or South Africa would, label its monetary unit with a distinctive name—whether the “Rand” or the “Kiwi,” or whatnot—the whole problem would be solved; Indeed, it would not arise.

This is not to say there is no problem. There is. What we are faced with, as a really urgent task in promoting clarity of thought, if not in •completing national recovery, is the need for a new and appropriate name for the New Zealand monetary unit. “Kiwi” may not. be the right term; nor s ; et “poundling”; but surely someone can suggest the word? The urgency of finding a solution to this problem In terminology is forcibly shown by the complete confusion of thought and words that is shown in the report by the Controller and Auditor-General which has just been laid on the table of the House of Representatives (Parliamentary Paper 8.-I (Pt. II) pp. xvi to xviii). There, poqnds sterling, New Zealand pounds, pounds sterling again, are solemnly set out, a line drawn beneath them; and, as if all "pounds” were alike, the differing units are solemnly totted up to produce one misleading total. As between New Zealand pounds and Canadian dollars, even the most simple; minded lg unlikely to err; bpt when, as is true of New Zealand and South Africa, and of New Zealand and Great Britain, the label “pound” is attached to the monetary units of two different countries, even experts sometimes slip. Who then will offer an acceptable suggestion for the name of a new New Zealand monetary unit?