MINISTER REPLIES TO QUESTION ON GOLD PRICE

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 September 1949, Page 2

MINISTER REPLIES TO QUESTION ON GOLD PRICE

WELLINGTON,: This Day (P.A.). -In the House of Representatives yesterday, the Minister - of Finance, Mr Nash, replying to a question by Mr F. Doidge (Opposition, Tauranga), who had quoted an article in the London Financial Times which charged Mr Nash with 1 preferring that New Zealand should borrow what she could easily produce herself if she supported gold producers, said that the article dealt with devaluation, monetary policy, balance of trade,, and the inevitable dollar problem. The article implied that a revaluation of gold would provide in itself a panacea. , . “Whether such - result would be achieved is open to doubt,” said Mr Nash. “That article gives the views of an anonymous contributor, one of many published by the paper. To imply that a charge has been made against me as Minister of Finance by this leading financial paper, when ithat paper has reproduced an aTticle from an unnamed contributor, is an exaggeration, .even in the world of journalism,” said Mr Nash. The writer did hot mention £22 10s per ounce, as quoted by Mr Doidge, but had referred to £lO to £l4 per ounce or more, when referring to the equivalent United States dollar price of gold valued in the free exchange market. The article was, of course, written before devaluation had taken place. - Mr Doidge, discussing’ Mr Nashs answer, said gold would buy dollars. Even at this late stage the Government should agree to permit the sale in the open market of gold produced in New Zealand. This could be done. New Zealand was not a party to the Bretton Woods agreement. Gold could be sold on the open market for £22 10s an ounce, instead of the new price of just over £l2, announced this week, following devaluation. The'British Empire produced. 75 per cent, of the world’s gold. If the 40,000,000 ounces of gold produced in the Empire last year had been sold at the free market price there would have been a substantial saving.