MONETARY REPORT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 234, 15 September 1934, Page 5

MONETARY REPORT

Disappointment in Auckland

"A MINOR RESULT”

The Douglas Credit Proposals

(By Telegraph—Presß Association.)

AUCKLAND, Sept. 16

Disappointment was expressed iu Auckland to-day with the Monetary Commission's report. Mr A. M. Seamau chairman of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, was not disposed to discuss the matter, but said it showed the futility of appointing a nou-expert committee to deal with a highly technical subject. Dr. E. P. Neale, secretary of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, said that any two economists could have written the report iu two or three days. The appointment of a Parliamentary committee was a very cumbersome way of achieving a minor result.

Mr W. J. Holdsworth, chairman of the citizens’ committee, said ho could see really nothing in the report. What it recommended had been coming about automatically in the banks’ own initiative.

Mr A. E. Robinson, vice-president of the Douglas Credit Association, said that the majority report simply whitewashed the Government for setting up the Reserve Bank and raising the exchange. The minority report would live when the other was forgotten. He asserted that Major Douglas’ proposals had been deliberately misinterpreted, and that publication of the report had been purposely deferred so that it could be used in Australia to-day against tho Douglas Credit candidates. NO SPECIAL LEGISLATION Prime Minister’s View ißy Telegraph-Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 15. There is nothing in the Monetary Commission's report that appears to call for special legislation, is the view taken by the Prime Minister (Kt. Hon. G. W. Forbes), who stated last night that the report would come before the House and an opportunity be given for discussion. "Monetary questions have already been discussed fairly iully in Parliament wuen private members’ bills were considered,” stated Mr. Forbes. The Commission had been set up to meet numerous requests that those who advocated various systems of currency should have au opportunity of placing their views before ,1 Parliamentary committee. The question of interest charges on Treasury bills had been discussed in the House on several occasions. The recommendations of tho Commission were matters more for the banks than for the Government as, for instance, overdraft rates and bank charges, and the amalgamation of State-lending departments, as mentioned in the report, had been foreshadowed in the Budget proposals under the heading of 'A Mortgage Corporation.’ Other matters mentioned wcro the concern of thy Reserve Bank.