NO CALL FOR SPECIAL LEGISLATION

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 301, 17 September 1934, Page 10

NO CALL FOR SPECIAL LEGISLATION

Mr. Forbes on Monetary Report MATTER MORE FOR BANKS By Telegraph.—-Press Association. Christchurch, September 15. There is nothing in the Monetary Committee’s report that appears to call for special legislation. This is the view taken by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, who stated last night that the report would eome before the House of Representatives and opportunity would be given for discussion. Monetary questions had already been discussed fairly fully in Parliament when private members’ Bills were considered, stated Mr. Forbes. The committee had beeh set up to meet numerous requests that those who advocated various systems of currency should have an opportunity of placing their views before a Parliamentary Committee. The question of interest charges on Treasury bills had been discussed in the House on several occasions. Th.e recommendations of the committee were matters more for tht banks than for the Government, as, for instance, those relating to overdraft rates and bank charges. The amalgamation of State lending departments, as mentioned In the report, had been foreshadow-ed in the Budget proposals under the heading of the Mortgage Corporation. Other'matters mentioned were the concern of the Reserve Bank. AUCKLAND VIEWS Disappointment Expressed By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, September 14. Disappointment was expressed in Auckland to-day with the Monetary Committee’s report. Mr. A. M, Seaman, chairman of the Associated Chambers of . Commerce, was not disposed to discuss the report, but said that it showed the futility of appointing a non-expert committee to deal with a highly technical subject. Dr. E. P. ’ Neale, secretary of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, said that any two economists could have written the report in two or three days. The appointment of a Parliamentary Committee was a Very cumbersome way of achieving a minor result. Mr. W. J..'Holdsworth, chairman of the Citizens’ Committee, said he could see really nothing in the report. What it recommended had been coming-about automatically, of the banks’ own initiative. Mr. A. E. Robinson, vice-president of the Douglas Credit Association, said that the 'majority report simply whitewashed the Government for setting up the Reserve Bank and raising the exchange rate. The minority report would live when the other was forgotten. He asserted that Major Douglas’s' proposals had been deliberately misinterpreted, and that the publication of the report had been purposely deferred so that it could be,used la Australia to-day against the Douglas credit election candidates.