THE EXCHANGE RATE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 50, 26 January 1933, Page 2

THE EXCHANGE RATE

GOVERNMENT’S ACTION CONDEMNED.

Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Jam. 26. The widespread feeling of .resentment which has been aroused in tno commercial community over the Government’s decision in raising tho ra e of exchange was strikingly evidenced at a public meeting to-day of Wellington business men. It was an overflow gathering, and the Governments action was subjected to severe .criticism. Most of it was directed at the leaders of the Coalition (Messrs Forbes and Coates). A resolution was carried condemning the Government for its action. The principal speakers were Messrs Salmond (president o the New Zealand Importers’ Federation) and A. Hislop (Mayor of Wellington). Mr Salmond said the Government s action in raising the exchange was dragging New Zealand’s name through tho mire. Never again would New Zealand occupy the same place in the minds of the English people. It was not yet too late. There was still time for Parliament to repair the error. Mr Hislop said the country was committed to an utterly artificial exchange. It was committed to a. proposition that the politician should control the business operations. “That cannot last,” lie said, “because if we, as a community, cannot stop it, at some stage economic forces themselves will stop it in utter confusion.” POSITION OF WELLINGTON CITY COUNCIL. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Jan. 26. The Mayor, when interviewed, told a. reporter to-day that there would be an increase in Wellington’s overseas interest bill of between £15,000 and £16.000. and the indirect effect of the exchange rate on the sources of revenue would make it clear that Wellington would be about £25.000 worse off next financial year on account of the exchange inflation. . There were . other terms on which the revenue would be decreased next financial year. So far as he could see at present the city would have £30.000 less than in the current year. The net r.esult was that next year there would be available for carrying on the services of the city apparently only half the amount expended in the year immediately prior to the present council coming into office. One thing now quite clear was that after March 31 of this year, the council would not be able to carry on any unemployment relief works. Thau would have to be financed and controlled wholly by the Government. Last year, out of revenue alone, the council spent £BOOO on unemployment relief. The exchange inflation wiped out definitely any possibility of the council carrying on any unemployment work in the future. Perhaps Mr Coates, as Minister of Finance, said the Mayor, wotild find that the burden he had created by his exchange inflation policy would be passed on to him to carry. “One matter I did not mention at the public meeting to-day,” said the Mayor, was the inequality of Air Coates’s exchange inflation policy. Under it, farmers, no matter what their resources, are going to get the benefit at the expense of others. It is weil known from the figures available in certain financial quarters that there are large numbers of New Zealand farmers who have on deposit sums of £IO,OOO, £20,000, £50,000 and more, and yet these people are going to get a bonus at the expense of those unfortunate individuals who are without anything.”