POUND STERLING

Hokitika Guardian, 5 December 1932, Page 8

POUND STERLING

INTEREST STABILITY

■LONDON, October 28. Speaking at the bunkers’ dinner at the Mansion House, Sir E. Hilton Young, Minister for Health, who represented the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said t..at it as noteworthy that the pound had been a more sta.nle and therefore a more trustworthy. measure of the value of goods than gold itself. 1 ‘Storljjbg has been found to. have an inherent stability of his own,” he continued. “The basis of that inherent stability is the stability cf our national institutions and our national character.

“You will expect me to prophesy,” Sir Hilton continued. “No one can say. exactly what the future of the pound l is likely to he. What can be said is that we could prudently return to gold only when it was made clea/ that the ' gold standard was going to work properly. “We must have a rise in the general value of wholesale commodity prices to a height more, in keeping with the level of cost ard an adjustment of the factors, political, economic, financial, and monetary, which have caused' its breakdown in many countries.

“We must not imagine that our difficulties are . ail overcome. Time is required for the Government policy, both in rega rd to'tariffs and in regard to. conversion, to work through to the industry of the country. The growth of unemployment, which wis arrested during September and remains.. I believe, arrested to-day, must still give groupd for anxious thought. MTbe more the Government and public authorities can. save by reducing and taxes the more the r^ton-av«rs and tcvoave.rs will have at their disposal for wise spending.”