N.Z. HIGH EXCHANGE RATE

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 April 1933, Page 7

N.Z. HIGH EXCHANGE RATE

ATTACKED IN COMMONS UNFAIR TO BRITAIN ? [BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] (Recd. April 12, 1 p.m.) LONDON, April 11. In the House of Commons, Messrs Lambert and Lindsay inquired what action was being taken in relation to the adverse New Zealand and Australian exchanges, the former remarking that they were unfair competition with Home producers. Mr Thomas said that the subject was one on which it was impossible to make representations. Mr Lambert: Is not New Zealand’s deliberate depreciation of currency a breach of the Ottawa understanding, that agricultural producers would get a fair share of the Home market? Mr Thomas: I do not think it was deliberate. Mr Percy Harris: Are you aware that the depreciation decisions was taken against the advice of . the British Government, and that its effect wiped out the advantage of preference to British goods? Mr Thomas: New Zealand is a Dominion. It is not for me to question the means whereby it arrived at a decision.

. MR COATES’S COMMENT. WELLINGTON, April 12. Commenting on the London cablegram regarding high exchange, Mr Coates said that two of the statements were so inaccurate it was difficult to believe these were made as reported, and he was perfectly certain they were not made by anybody conversant with the facts. The British Government did not give any advice as to the rate of exchange nor had the matter at any time been subject to representations by them. The course adopted was taken on the responsibility of the New Zealand Government which had full regard to all the circumstances, and particularly to the necessity, as a matter of national policy of assisting the Dominion’s most essential industries. The second point called for no comment, because it was so obviously wide of the mark, that through legislation, the advantage of British preference had been wiped out. It was not. The tariff preference on imports by which a substantial preference was given the British against foreign imports, was not affected by the variation in the exchange rates.