"TIME INOPPORTUNE"

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 38, 15 February 1933, Page 10

"TIME INOPPORTUNE"

CENTRAL RESERVE BANK

POSTPONEMENT URGED

',' /' (ByTelegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.") PALMERSTON S\, This Day. The i pllowing resolution -was passed last night by the council of the Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce:—, -.'..-. • "That the Associated Chambers of Commerce be asked to urge upon the Government that the time is most inopportune for the establishment of a Central Reserve Bank on the lines indicated and ask that the proposals be postponed in the meantime." The establishment of a central bank at- the present time, said the president; Mr.M. H. Oram, in moving^ would be followed by a certain dislocation of the channels of trade and of banking habits, and would have a disturbing influence on the community. It was significant that no demand had been made by commercial and banking interests for such a bank; furthermore, nobody had_been able to point to any particular in which a central bank.would assist the country in its present difficulties. : The Government, by raising the exchange rate to 25 per cent., had done the. very thing that a central bank was supposed to be established to prevent, for. the Central, Bank Bill contained machinery for.keeping the exchange rate low. It seemed that a central bank might be justified when confidence returned and prosperity was in sight. In the present proposals there was' nothing to prevent a body of financiers from obtaining the bulk of the shares and taking control of the finances of the country for twenty-five years. Inseconding the' proposal, Mr. H. L. Edmunds said he agreed with the remarks made. He thought the country was getting so much into chaos that the people did not know where they were. '

Mr. W. G. Ross'also supported the proposal, which was carried without lurther comment.