Exchange Chairman Discusses Trade Control

Northern Advocate, 16 December 1938, Page 6

Exchange Chairman Discusses Trade Control

[Per Press Association. Copyright .] WELLINGTON, This Day.

“In spite of having had the benefit of increased prices for our primary products for the past four or five years, we find ourselves to-day back again in many respects to the same position as we were in when New Zealand, in keeping with the rest of the world, was weathering the greatest economic blizzard of this century,” remarked Mr Andrew Hamilton, chairman of the Wellington Stock Exchange, at the annual meeting yesterday. “The question so prominently today in the minds of those who have any real stake in the country is the

latest move on the part of the Gov- , ernment to control our imports, thus placing an embargo on exchange. Different Circumstances. “Reference has been made to the fact that the exchange was controlled by the previous Government in 1931, and so the present control was nothing new. “However, the cause of the embargo to-day is totally different from that of 1931. “Then, our primary products were bringing such low prices on account of the general depression throughout the world that we had next to nothing to work on. “To-day we are deficient in sterling funds for the.i’eason that the end of last June we have raced through some 75 per cent, of those funds in the hands of the Reserve Bank, or about 70 per cent, of the combined Reserve and trading banks’ funds. “No similar depression has been ruling outside, and our produce still brings prices far ahead of those ruling in 1930 and 1931. “Ample warning has been given as to the result of draining our London funds. It is difficult to believe this control is part of a uniform scheme, and not the outcome solely of necessity.”