DECIMAL COINAGE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 300, 15 September 1936, Page 5

DECIMAL COINAGE

A Centennial Suggestion A remimler is given iu an editorial article of tlie New Zealand “Account•nits’ Journal” that when the Dominion’s coinage system was considered bv a siieelai committee set up by the Government in 1933 representations were made that, in regard to the change-over from British coinage to a s stem of tokens specially minted for New Zealand requirements, .the deeima; system of coinage and accounting should be introduced. In its report the committee stated that under the circumstances then prevailing—economic depression and the rapid depletion of Imperial silver coins, due to smuggling to gain the exchange margin, and the fact that new coins were urgently re qulred liefore any change-over to the decimal system could iiossibly be made —there would be no other course than to recommend the retention of the existing denominations for the new coins. .At the same time, the commit tee made the suggestion that the alteration in rhe New Zealand system might appropriately be considered in conjunction with, any proposal to issue centennial coins here.

Although there is no special decimal association working up interest in New Zealand, the question of the introduction of a decimal coinage system has on various occasions been brought prominently before commercial interests. For many years there has been a strong agitation in the Old Country. At the last Empire Congress of Chambers of Commerce in London, it was resolved : —"That whereas the use of decimal coinage promotes commercial efficiency and simplified international exchange, and whereas the various monetary units in all foreign countries, and also in several parts of the British Empire, are now divided on the decimal system, it is desirable that the decimalisation of the pound sterling be completed without delay.” While supporting the principle of the proposed change, the “Accountants’ Journal” remarks that “the adoption of the system would offer difficulties unless Great Britain and other countries formiug the Empire also adopted the method. While it is true that Canada uses the decimal system, there are special features operating in that Dominion which do not apply to New Zealand. Canada is a very close neighbour to the United States, and the interchange of trade and the interchange of people between the two countries has created a position which has made the adoption of the decimal system in Canada almost a necessity. Under present conditions New Zealand finds the conversion of invoices for American and foreign importations irksome enough, and if the decimal system was adopted ahead, of the rest of the other Empire countries, a good deal of difficulty would arise.” z