MONETARY CONTROL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22427, 6 September 1947, Page 6

MONETARY CONTROL

STABILISED PRICES PETITION TO PARLIAMENT (P.R ) WELLINGTON, Sept. 5. That the Dominion now suffers from an unprecedented and disastrous expansion of credit money and that the principles of monetary control have not been put into operation is the opinion expressed in a petition presented to the House of Representatives this morning by Mr. P. G. Connolly (Govt.—Dunedin Central) from Kenneth Hector Melvin, Dominion president of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. Association. The petition, which is based on a resolution carried at the annual conference of the organisation, requests that legislation be passed this session to stabilise the general internal price level as determined from time to time by the prices indices and that a statutory obligation be placed on the Reserve Bank or other authority to control the creation and issue of currency and credit to this end, thereby ensuring the maintenance of the stable purchasing power of New Zealand’s monetary unit, the £1 note.

It is pointed out in the petition that both the Government and the Opposition favour the maintenance of a stable price level the twin evils of inflation arid deflation, but that much of the country's, industrial unrest is directly attributable to the mounting difficulty of maintaining an adequate standard of living.

“This,” adds the petition, “drives the workers to the futile expedient of pursuing increased prices by means of belated wage increases.”