MONETARY REFORM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 6 September 1935, Page 7

MONETARY REFORM

MR MASON INTRODUCES A BILL (B.y Telegraph) (From ‘‘The Mail’s” Parliamentary Reporter) Moving- for leave to introduce the National Credits and Currency Bill, Mr H. G. R. Mason (Labour, Auckland Suburbs) said the object of the Bill was to provide that the nation should control ifs own credit and currency. He hopes to see New Zealand lead the way in making the revolutionary change which the Bill proposed. Mr R. Semple (Labour. Wellington East) said the Government had”sup-' plied each of its candidates with a German niark note, which was used as a warning against Labour. That was the old Government attitude. _ The Monetary Committee had stated in its report last year that there could be no objection to the State controlling currency and credit within its own borders. There was enough food in New Zealand to keep ten times the number of people in the country, and yet there were people starving. The Rev. C. Carr (Labour, Timaru) said the Bill \yould merely restore to the Crown the prerogative of creating money and credit for the people. Mr D.‘ Sullivan (Labour, Avon) asked the Government to explain if they regarded the proposals of Mr . Mason as visionary and impractical and as somethin"'that' did not correspond with the tru’tTi of things, what solution they had to offer for the obvious anomaly with which the country was confronted to-day, the problem of poverty in the midst of wealth. The provisions -of t.he Bill would make’ every family happy, prosperous, and comfortable. The Government surely had some views to offer on the subject. Mr A. S. Richards (Labour, Rpskill) said the people of the British Isles were practically free from debt until the Bank of England was granted a Charter. The Bill would enable goods, which were available in plenty, to he distributed to those who needed them. Mr R. McKeen (Labour, Wellington South) said if money were available for nothing and industry did « not absorb it, because there was not the power available'to consume the goods that would be produced that was the country’s trouble. The Bill was read a first time.