FREEDOM OF GOLD

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 May 1925, Page 7

FREEDOM OF GOLD

VIEWS OF A BANK CHAIRMAN. Mr Arthur Whitworth, chairman of tho Bank of Australasia, referred to the return to gold when- addressing shareholders of the- bank in London. “You will perhaps appreciate how the position to-day, in the .opinion of your directors, in the distribution .of profits , still demands conservative caution,’’ he said. “The notes borrowed have to be repaid as to 75 per cent at thb end of August;-and our accumulations of .bash in .London, have to be returned to' the points where our resources can be most pro£tably_employed. With, this in view, the dollar value of sterling is a - matter of. immediate interest, for in the. neighbourhood of an exchange of 4.78 it is more profitable to buy some o'* America’s surplus gold and ship to Australia than to buy the very limited quantity of Australian pounds that may be offering through ordinary trade channels. “It is estimated that within the last six weeks some £7,000,000 has thus been purchased and found its way either in bars to the-mint . at Sydney or in sovereigns into the tills L of the banks. This inflow of gold into Australia has caused a modification of the Commonwealth Government’s embargo on export, ihe banks now being free to reexport gold if imported since January 1 last. “A free movement of gold is a necessary prelude to a return to more stable conditions and to a reduction in exchange charges and risks, not only in Australian trade but in every direction

in which the foreign -trade of this country is interested. When the wool manufacturer in Yorkshire can buy his wool' without having to reckon in his price the best part of 4 per ceqt merely for his ability to pay for it, our export trade fin manufactured woollen goods should revive. The same argument is applicable to all those trades in this country which depend on imports for their raw material and on exports for their turnover and employment of labour.”