Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1932. EXCHANGE CONTROVERSY.

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 February 1932, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1932. EXCHANGE CONTROVERSY.

gOME triumph for importunation will probably be the result of the farmers’ demand for a, free exchange, as the majority of the Professors appointed as an Economic Committee to advise the Government on the matter, have freely expressed their advocacy of abolition of lhe present control rate. In monetary matters, it is desirable to be guided by experts, but not all the selected Professors command public confidence, their practical knowledge of the subject of exchange being no more, if as much as the average businessman’s. What is certain is that if the exchange rate goes higher—and this seems certain, even if some degree of control is retained —the country generally will have to pay a high price. National interests are to be

killed, or maimed, to make a farm-

ers ’ holiday. I Interest payments hy State and many local bodies, as well as remittances to Britain by those who have to import goods from the Motherland, will be largely increased by the excessive exchange. Farmers say that this gift to them will be taken away by the necessary higher taxation, but they cannot believe that themselves; they would not agitate for a mere temporary transfer of money. On general principles, farmers may have a ease in declaring that they are entitled to the highest advantage possible from the sale of their products in Britain, but when it is remembered how greatly the farmers are helped by national subsidies, low . credit charges, embargoes on imports, etc., etc., their demand for free exchange at this juncture appears selfish and ungrateful. New Zealand bankers have opposed the uncontrolled rate of exchange, but such advice is being over-ridden. The Government will not add to the respect felt for it by shelving the responsibility for the solution of the problem on to University Professors. It would appear that the Government is acting against its own convictions, yielding to pressure from those whose votes count at election period. Ministers have acclaimed the “control” system, and nothing ' has happened to lessen the value . of their previous arguments. The whole story is regrettable, and may prove worse, for the non-rural taxpayer and ratepayer. The cost to the country of the free exchange will have to be met, and the next Budget will be awaited with considerable anxiety.

ANOTHER EXCHANGE. 'J’O descend from national affairs to local, there is an exchange being suggested in Greymouth that has much to recommend it, and that is an application to be made to the Borough Council, to have the band rotunda in Boundary Street transferred to McLean Park. The cost is proposed to be met from the unemployment relief fund. District motorists who have previously agitated for the removal of the rotunda from its present site, should be urged to subscribe generously. The rotunda is seldom used for. the purpose for which it was built, and its transfer to McLean Park would not only remove an obstacle to traffic in a busy centre, but would add to the amenities of the new ground. Those working to make McLean Park a worthwhile recreation ground, deserve community support, and few things would make the ground more popular and better known, than occasional band concerts. It is to be hoped that the Borough Council will give sympathetic consideration to the application, and that townsmen, generally, will co-operate to allow the suggestion to materialise at an early date.