AID IN WAR EFFORT

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 70, 15 December 1939, Page 11

AID IN WAR EFFORT

Year’s Salary Donated

RESERVE BANK GOVERNOR

The Governor of the Reserve Bank, Mr. Leslie Lefeaux, has intimated to the Government his desire that the last year of his term of office should be regarded as a voluntary contribution to the national war effort, and that his service for that period should be without salary if hostilities continued till the end of 1940. Making this announcement yesterday, the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, expressed appreciation of Mr. Lefeaux’s splendid generosity, and said that he personally, with the Government, looked forward to a year of co-operative effort between the bank and the Government to overcome the financial difficulties which had been so much accentuated by the war. Mr. Lefeaux, whose annual salary is £5OOO in New Zealand currency, was appointed first Governor of the Reserve Bank on January 10, 1934, under the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act, 1933. The term of the appointment is seven years.

Mr. Lefeaux, who is 53 years of age, permanently severed his connexion with the Bank of England when he accepted the governorship of the Reserve Bank. He was at that time assistant to the Governor of the Bank of England, which he joined in 1902. The appointment in New Zealand of a senior official of the Bank of England to the Reserve Bank was not without precedent, ns in 1920 Mr. W. 11. Clegg, accountant to the Bank of England, was appointed first Governor of the South African Central Reserve Bank. He held that position till 1931, when he returned to England as a director of the Bank of England.